Journal article
Rheumatic Heart Disease-Attributable Mortality at Ages 5–69 Years in Fiji: A Five-Year, National, Population-Based Record-Linkage Cohort Study
T Parks, J Kado, AE Miller, B Ward, R Heenan, SM Colquhoun, TW Bärnighausen, M Mirabel, DE Bloom, RL Bailey, IN Tukana, AC Steer
Plos Neglected Tropical Diseases | Published : 2015
Abstract
Background: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is considered a major public health problem in developing countries, although scarce data are available to substantiate this. Here we quantify mortality from RHD in Fiji during 2008–2012 in people aged 5–69 years. Methods and Findings: Using 1,773,999 records derived from multiple sources of routine clinical and administrative data, we used probabilistic record-linkage to define a cohort of 2,619 persons diagnosed with RHD, observed for all-cause mortality over 11,538 person-years. Using relative survival methods, we estimated there were 378 RHD-attributable deaths, almost half of which occurred before age 40 years. Using census data as the denominat..
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Awarded by Medical Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
Funding for salaries and research costs was received from the Medical Research Council UK (Fellowship G1100449; http://www.mrc.ac.uk), the British Medical Association (Josephine Lansdell Grant; www.bma.org.uk) and the Sir Halley Stewart Trust (Research Grant; www.sirhalleystewart.org.uk) awarded to TP. Additional funding for a cost of illness study was received the World Health Organisation awarded to TWB, DEB and ACS. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.