Rabies is a fatal, preventable zoonosis, but it is not effectively controlled throughout much of the developing world. The impetus for control is hampered by a lack of awareness of its true impact. We estimate a disability-adjusted life year (DALY) score for rabies to quantify the disease impact relative to other diseases to set priorities for public health interventions.

BACKGROUND Health care planning and research would benefit from tools that enable researchers to project the future burden of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and evaluate the effect of potential interventions. METHODS We created a web-based application of the AD prevalence model developed by Brookmeyer et al (Am J Public Health 1998;88:1337-42; Alzheimers Dement 2007;3:186-91). The user defines the ...

STUDY OBJECTIVE We determine the minimum mortality reduction that helicopter emergency medical services (EMS) should provide relative to ground EMS for the scene transport of trauma victims to offset higher costs, inherent transport risks, and inevitable overtriage of patients with minor injury. METHODS We developed a decision-analytic model to compare the costs and outcomes of helicopter ver...

Background—Although stroke and ischemic heart disease (IHD) have several well-established risk factors in common, the extent of global variation in the relative burdens of these forms of vascular disease and reasons for any observed variation are poorly understood. Methods and Results—We analyzed mortality and disability-adjusted life-year loss rates from stroke and IHD, as well as national est...

BACKGROUND Although stroke and ischemic heart disease (IHD) have several well-established risk factors in common, the extent of global variation in the relative burdens of these forms of vascular disease and reasons for any observed variation are poorly understood. METHODS AND RESULTS We analyzed mortality and disability-adjusted life-year loss rates from stroke and IHD, as well as national e...

INTRODUCTION Smoking is one of the main risk factors for morbidity and mortality. An estimated 59 million (4.4%) disability-adjusted life years were lost due to smoking throughout the world in 2000. OBJECTIVE To estimate the disease burden attributable to smoking in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the year 2000. METHODS Based on estimates of smoking prevalence and relative death ri...

Materials and methods This study was conducted at a national level, using the government, patients and family’s perspectives. Both primary and secondary data were used. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in the year 2008. Data were also obtained from both national and international literature and databases. The concepts of Disability Adjusted Life Year, Cost of Illness estimation and Genera...