Systemic autoimmune disease as a cause of death: mortality burden and comorbidities.

Objectives: Systemic autoimmune diseases (SAIDs) have chronic trajectories and share characteristics of self-directed inflammation, as well as aspects of clinical expression. Nonetheless, burden-of-disease studies rarely investigate them as a distinct category. This study aims to assess the mortality rate of SAIDs as a group and to evaluate co-occurring causes of death.

How large should a cause of death be in order to be included in mortality trend analysis? Deriving a cut-off point from retrospective trend analyses in 21 European countries.

Objectives: The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) distinguishes a large number of causes of death (CODs) that could each be studied individually when monitoring time-trends. We aimed to develop recommendations for using the size of CODs as a criterion for their inclusion in long-term trend analysis.

Design: Retrospective trend analysis.

Detecting Mortality Trends in the Netherlands Across 625 Causes of Death.

Cause of death (COD) data are essential to public health monitoring and policy. This study aims to determine the proportion of CODs, at ICD-10 three-position level, for which a long-term or short-term trend can be identified, and to examine how much the likelihood of identifying trends varies with COD size. We calculated annual age-standardized counts of deaths from Statistics Netherlands for the period 1996-2015 for 625 CODs.

Comparing causes of death of Hodgkin lymphoma and breast cancer patients between medical records and cause-of-death statistics.

Objective: Obtaining accurate data about causes of death may be difficult in patients with a complicated disease history, including cancer survivors. This study compared causes of death derived from medical records (COD) with causes of death derived from death certificates (COD) as processed by Statistics Netherlands of patients primarily treated for Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) or breast cancer (BC).

Methods: Two hospital-based cohorts comprising 1,215 HL patients who died in the period 1980-2013 and 714 BC patients who died in the period 2000-2013 were linked with cause-of-death statistics files.

20 year trends in renal disease mortality in Ghana: A review of autopsies.

Aim: Data on the changing levels in renal morbidity and mortality are scant globally. We sought to assess trends in renal disease mortality and attributable causes over a 20 year period in Ghana.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of 20 year autopsy records of the Pathology Departments of leading teaching hospitals in Ghana, (Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) in Accra and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi) from January 1994 to December 2013.

Trend study on the association between hospital admissions and the health of Dutch older adults (1995-2009).

Objectives: An increase in hospital admission rates in older people may reflect improved access to healthcare, but also declining health trends in the older population. Owing to a lack of individual-level data, the latter possibility has received little attention. The current study examines associations between health status and hospitalisation rates of older adults in the Netherlands.

A Novel Time Series Approach to Bridge Coding Changes with a Consistent Solution Across Causes of Death.

Revisions of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) can lead to biases in cause-specific mortality levels and trends. We propose a novel time series approach to bridge ICD coding changes which provides a consistent solution across causes of death. Using a state space model with interventions, we performed time series analysis to cause-proportional mortality for ICD9 and ICD10 in the Netherlands (1979-2010), Canada (1979-2007) and Italy (1990-2007) on chapter level.

Impaired survival and long-term neurological problems in benign meningioma.

Purpose: To assess long-term functional outcome and survival among patients with meningioma World Health Organization (WHO) grade I.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of 205 patients after resection of WHO grade I intracranial meningioma from 1985 through 2003. Expected age- and sex-specific survival was calculated by applying Dutch life-table statistics to each patient for the individual duration of follow-up.

Mortality after hospital admission for ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Background: The purpose of this study is to quantify age- and gender-specific mortality risks for patients hospitalized for ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (rAAA).

Methods: The mortality risks for 28-day, 1-year, and 5-year were derived from a retrospective nation-wide cohort study of patients who were first hospitalized for rAAA in 1997 or 2000, formed through linkage of the Hospital Discharge Register with the Dutch population register. The Hospital Discharge Register contains a record for each hospital admission, giving information about patient demographics and diagnosis.

The reliability of cause-of-death coding in The Netherlands.

Cause-of-death statistics are a major source of information for epidemiological research or policy decisions. Information on the reliability of these statistics is important for interpreting trends in time or differences between populations. Variations in coding the underlying cause of death could hinder the attribution of observed differences to determinants of health.

Mortality after elective abdominal aortic aneurysm repair.

Objective: Purpose of this study is to provide detailed age- and gender-specific mortality risks of patients hospitalized for elective AAA repair.

Summary Background Data: Whether to perform elective abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) surgery is balancing the risks of natural history against the risks of surgical intervention. Literature is lacking mortality risks after elective AAA repair with stratification by both age and gender.

Incidence of first acute myocardial infarction in the Netherlands.

Objectives: To study the incidence of first acute myocardial infarction (AMi) in the Netherlands.

Background: We recently showed that AMi patients can be followed longitudinally within dutch national medical registrations in a valid way. This makes it possible to provide nationwide incidence estimates of first AMi in the Netherlands.

Short- and long-term mortality after acute myocardial infarction: comparison of patients with and without diabetes mellitus.

Aims To compare short- and long-term mortality after a first acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in patients with and without diabetes mellitus. Methods and results A nationwide cohort of 2,018 diabetic and 19,547 nondiabetic patients with a first hospitalized AMI in 1995 was identified through linkage of the national hospital discharge register and the population register. Follow-up for mortality lasted until the end of 2000.

Acute myocardial infarction incidence and hospital mortality: routinely collected national data versus linkage of national registers.

Background And Objective: To compare levels of and trends in incidence and hospital mortality of first acute myocardial infarction (AMI) based on routinely collected hospital morbidity data and on linked registers. Cases taken from routine hospital data are a mix of patients with recurrent and first events, and double counting occurs when cases are admitted for an event several times during 1 year. By linkage of registers, recurrent events and double counts can be excluded.

Short- and long-term prognosis after acute myocardial infarction in men versus women.

The prevailing view is that women have a higher early mortality after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) than men, but several studies have shown no differences. Further, long-term differences have not been addressed widely. The present study examined gender differences in short- and long-term prognoses after AMI in The Netherlands.

Decline in incidence of hospitalisation for acute myocardial infarction in the Netherlands from 1995 to 2000.

Objective: To study the change in incidence of hospitalisation for a first acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in the Netherlands from 1995 to 2000.

Methods: Patients hospitalised with their first AMI in the Netherlands in 1995 and 2000 were identified through linkage of the national hospital discharge register and the population register.

Results: 21,565 patients hospitalised for their first AMI in 1995 and 19,058 patients hospitalised for their first AMI in 2000 were identified.

[Possibilities for anonymous follow-up studies of patients in Dutch national medical registrations using the Municipal Population Register: a pilot study].

Objective: To examine the feasibility of using information from the Dutch Municipal Population Register (Dutch acronym: GBA) to anonymously track groups of patients.

Design: Exploratory.

Method: Using a random sample from the Dutch National Medical Register (Dutch acronym: LMR), hospital admission with discharge in January 1996, it was determined to what extent the admission records could be linked to the GBA.

Genotypes and phenotypes for apolipoprotein E and Alzheimer disease in the Honolulu-Asia aging study.

Background: The utility of apolipoprotein E (ApoE) type as an indicator of genetic susceptibility to Alzheimer disease (AD) depends on the reliability of typing. Although ApoE protein isoform phenotyping is generally assumed equivalent to genotyping from DNA, phenotype-genotype differences have been reported.

Methods: ApoE genotype and phenotype results were examined for 3564 older (ages 71-93 years) Japanese-American male participants of the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study, an ongoing population-based study of aging and dementia.

Withdrawal or withholding of treatment at the end of life. Results of a nationwide study.

Background: Decisions to withhold or withdraw treatment (nontreatment decisions) become increasingly important because they have to be made more frequently and more explicitly. This nationwide study provides information on the occurrence and background of these nontreatment decisions.

Methods: Three studies were undertaken: interviews with 405 physicians, 5197 answered questionnaires concerning deceased persons, and information about 2257 deaths collected by a prospective study.

Nationwide study of decisions concerning the end of life in general practice in The Netherlands.

Objective: To gain insight into decisions made in general practice about the end of life.

Design: Study I: interviews with 405 physicians. Study II: analysis of death certificates with data obtained on 5197 cases in which decisions about the end of life may have been made.

[Disease burden of nervous system disorders in The Netherlands].

Objective: To determine the prevalence and the burden of diseases of the nervous system in the Netherlands.

Design: Descriptive.

Setting: Institute of Public Health Care, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

[The effect of publications on clinical practice; chemonucleolysis].

The influence on practice of a publication about a randomised clinical trial of chemonucleolysis (CNL) vs. herniotomy in patients with lumbar prolapsed intervertebral disc was investigated, using a questionnaire sent to neurosurgeons and neurologists. There were no differences between responses of neurosurgeons and neurologists, nor between academic and non-academic specialists.

Testicular cancer in young men and parental occupational exposure.

To investigate whether parental occupation, especially during the 12 month period before birth, could be responsible for elevated rates of testicular cancer in young men, we used data from a case-control study of 223 cases and 212 controls conducted in the Washington, DC area. For all histologic types of testicular cancer combined, no significant associations were found for specific occupations, nor for the broad occupational categories of professional, other white collar, or blue collar workers. However, for cases with seminomas, excess risks were seen for those with parents employed in the following occupations: mothers in health-related occupations, O.

Occupation and risk for testicular cancer: a case-control study.

A case-control study of 271 testicular cancer cases aged 18-42, including 60 seminomas and 206 other germinal cell tumours, and 259 controls was carried out to study the association between occupation and testicular cancer risk. Study subjects were identified at three medical centres, two of which treat military personnel. Controls were men diagnosed with a cancer other than of the genital tract.