Determinants of the decline in mortality from acute stroke in England: linked national database study of 795 869 adults.

Objectives: To study trends in stroke mortality rates, event rates, and case fatality, and to explain the extent to which the reduction in stroke mortality rates was influenced by changes in stroke event rates or case fatality.

Design: Population based study.

Setting: Person linked routine hospital and mortality data, England.

Risk of individual malignant neoplasms in patients with sickle cell disease: English national record linkage study.

Objective: Case reports suggest that there may be an increased risk of some cancers associated with sickle cell disease. However, population-based studies are scarce and there is no comprehensive enumeration of the risks across the whole range of site-specific cancers. Our aim was to provide this.

Clinical associations between gout and multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and motor neuron disease: record-linkage studies.

Background: Uric acid has antioxidant effects on neurons. Abnormally high levels of uric acid are, however, associated with gout. Previous studies have suggested that high levels of uric acid (and the presence of gout) may exert a protective effect against the risk of developing some neurological diseases.

Associations between Klinefelter's syndrome and autoimmune diseases: English national record linkage studies.

There are reports suggesting that people with Klinefelter's syndrome (KS) may be at increased risk of some autoimmune diseases, but the evidence is not substantial. We wanted to add to the evidence by systematically assessing the risk of autoimmune diseases in a national cohort of people with KS. We selected records of all people with KS in a record-linked dataset of all hospital day cases and inpatient admissions in England, 1999-2011; and we followed them up by electronic record linkage to identify the occurrence of autoimmune diseases.

Association between multiple sclerosis and epilepsy: large population-based record-linkage studies.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) and epilepsy are both fairly common and it follows that they may sometimes occur together in the same people by chance. We sought to determine whether hospitalisation for MS and hospitalisation for epilepsy occur together more often than expected by chance alone.

Methods: We analysed two datasets of linked statistical hospital admission records covering the Oxford Record Linkage Study area (ORLS, 1963-1998) and all England (1999-2011).

Turner syndrome and autoimmune diseases: record-linkage study.

Background: There is increasing evidence that Turner syndrome is associated with an elevated risk of a range of autoimmune disorders. We aimed to document this in a national study.

Method: Use of a record-linked dataset of all hospital admissions in England, 1999-2011, to construct a retrospective cohort of people with Turner syndrome and a control cohort of people without it.

Gout as a risk factor for myocardial infarction and stroke in England: evidence from record linkage studies.

Objective: Some studies suggest that gout is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. There is more evidence about the association between gout and acute myocardial infarction (MI) than about gout and stroke, and only limited information about risks by age group and sex. We aimed to study MI and stroke following gout, including types of stroke, by age group and comparing men and women.

Risk of pneumonia and pneumococcal disease in people with severe mental illness: English record linkage studies.

Background: People with severe mental illness have a higher risk than others of some physical diseases. The risk of pneumococcal disease in people with mental disorders is unknown. This is potentially important because vaccines against the pneumococcus are available.