Can economic indicators predict infectious disease spread? A cross-country panel analysis of 13 European countries.

It is unclear how economic factors impact on the epidemiology of infectious disease. We evaluated the relationship between incidence of selected infectious diseases and economic factors, including economic downturn, in 13 European countries between 1970 and 2010. : Data were obtained from national communicable disease surveillance centres.

Health assessments for health governance-concepts and methodologies.

Background: For better supporting the science-governance interface, the potential of health assessments appears underrated.

Aims: To identify what various types of health assessment have in common; how they differ; which assessment(s) to apply for which purpose; and what needs and options there are for future joint development.

Methods: This review is based on five types of health assessment: monitoring/surveillance/reporting, assessment of health impact, of health technology, of health systems performance, health-related economic assessment.

School life expectancy and risk for tuberculosis in Europe.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the effect of country-level school life expectancy on Tuberculosis (TB) incidence to gain further understanding of substantial variation in TB incidence across Europe.

Methods: An ecological study examined the prospective association between baseline country-level education in 2000 measured by school life expectancy and TB incidence in 2000-2010 in 40 countries of the WHO European region using quantile regression. Subsequently, to validate the ecological associations between education and TB incidence, an individual-level analysis was performed using case-based data in 29 EU/EEA countries from the European Surveillance System (TESSy) and simulating a theoretical control group.

Environmental burden of disease in Europe: assessing nine risk factors in six countries.

Background: Environmental health effects vary considerably with regard to their severity, type of disease, and duration. Integrated measures of population health, such as environmental burden of disease (EBD), are useful for setting priorities in environmental health policies and research. This review is a summary of the full Environmental Burden of Disease in European countries (EBoDE) project report.

Infection with hepatitis B and C virus in Europe: a systematic review of prevalence and cost-effectiveness of screening.

Background: Treatment for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is improving but not benefiting individuals unaware to be infected. To inform screening policies we assessed (1) the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and anti-hepatitis C virus antibody (anti-HCV-Ab) prevalence for 34 European countries; and (2) the cost-effectiveness of screening for chronic HBV and HCV infection.

Methods: We searched peer-reviewed literature for data on HBsAg and anti-HCV-Ab prevalence and cost-effectiveness of screening of the general population and five subgroups, and used data for people who inject drugs (PWID) and blood donors from two European organizations.

Measles outbreak in Bulgaria: poor maternal educational attainment as a risk factor for medical complications.

Background: An 8-year era of interrupted indigenous measles transmission in Bulgaria came to an end in April 2009 when a large epidemic occurred that would eventually claim 24,253 cases and 24 deaths; infants, children and young adults of the Roma community were disproportionally affected. Compared with Western Europe, case-fatality rate and proportion of medical complications were uncharacteristically high.

Methods: To disentangle underlying drivers of the outbreak and reasons for these medical complications, we assembled a number of national ecologic variables as well as regional individual-level data for 206 measles cases, randomly selected from national medical records.

Social determinants of tuberculosis in Europe: a prospective ecological study.

Tuberculosis (TB) is considered to be a disease of poverty, since its incidence is exacerbated by socioeconomic factors, inconsistent or partial treatment practices, and immigration from endemic countries. A prospective country level study, using a comprehensive dataset of TB incidence and prevalence taken from countries within the World Health Organization (WHO) European region, was conducted. We employed quintile regression to investigate the prospective association between baseline (measured in 2000) and a nation's wealth, level of egalitarianism, migration rate, health-related lifestyle and social capital with TB incidence and prevalence over a 10-yr period (2000-2009).

Lung cancer mortality in France. Trend analysis and projection between 1975 and 2012, using a Bayesian age-period-cohort model.

Introduction: Lung cancer is currently the most common cancer in the world and as such is an important public health concern. One of the main challenges is to foresee the evolution of trends in lung cancer mortality rates in order to anticipate the future burden of this disease as well as to plan the supply of adequate health care. The aim of this study is to propose a quantification of future lung cancer mortality rates by gender in France until the year 2012.