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Article
Publication date: 15 June 2015

Gopal Agrawal

Twenty-first century has dawned with substantial achievements in population health outcome indicators in India. However, very little is known on patterns in causes of death in…

Abstract

Purpose

Twenty-first century has dawned with substantial achievements in population health outcome indicators in India. However, very little is known on patterns in causes of death in India. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, data was drawn from two sources namely, National Family Health Survey (NFHS-1, 1992-1993 and NFHS-2, 1998-1999) and published reports of Survey of Cause of Death (Rural). Three-years moving average causes-of-death estimates were calculated based on World Health Organization classification of causes of death. Negative binomial regression models were fitted to capture the effect of socio-demographic and behavioural determinants of patterns in causes of death.

Findings

The leading causes of death were heart diseases, tuberculosis, asthma, paralysis, prematurity and cancer. Three-fifth of the deaths to children under the age of ten was from communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions. On the other hand, about two-third persons aged 45 years and above were dying from non-communicable diseases. Female were at greater risk of dying from non-communicable diseases (IRR: 1.22, 95 per cent CI: 1.11-1.34, p < 0.001).

Research limitations/implications

The epidemiologic transition in India has produced a shift in mortality from communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions to non-communicable diseases, with little or no role played by injuries regardless of the level of all-cause mortality. Coupled with the effects of population age structures, other factors were also responsible for the bulk of the inter-regional disparities. These factors include differences in the populations’ health risks associated with the natural or built environments, prevalence of behavioural risk factors, or gaps in the capacities of health systems to respond to specific disease challenges, social stratification and others.

Originality/value

This paper described the trends, patterns and geographic variability in India’s causes-of-death profile in terms of communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases and injuries, and socio-economic and demographic determinants of patterns in the profile.

Details

International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, vol. 8 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4902

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1994

Derek Mozley

Three events of significance to this country took place in 1899 – the British Food Journal was launched, Australia retained the Ashes, and the Boer War hostilities commenced. If…

1001

Abstract

Three events of significance to this country took place in 1899 – the British Food Journal was launched, Australia retained the Ashes, and the Boer War hostilities commenced. If challenged on the order of their importance, cricketers and Empire‐builders may be excused their preference. However, looking at it purely from the standpoint of pro bono publico, the dispassionate observer must surely opt for the birth of a certain publication as being ultimately the most beneficial of the three.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 96 no. 5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Book part
Publication date: 31 August 2001

Irina Farquhar, Alan Sorkin, Kent Summers and Earl Weir

We study changes in age-specific diabetes-related mortality and annual health care utilization. We find that half of the estimated 16% increase of diabetic mortality falls within…

Abstract

We study changes in age-specific diabetes-related mortality and annual health care utilization. We find that half of the estimated 16% increase of diabetic mortality falls within employable age groups. We estimate that disease combination-specific increase in case fatality has resulted in premature diabetic mortality costing $3.2 billion annually. The estimated annual direct cost of treating high-risk diabetics reaches $36 billion, of which Medicare and Other Federal Programs compensate 54%. Respiratory conditions among diabetics comprise the same proportion of high-risk diabetics as do the disease combinations including coronary heart diseases. Treating of general diabetic conditions has become more efficient as indicated by the estimated declines in per unit health care costs.

Details

Investing in Health: The Social and Economic Benefits of Health Care Innovation
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-070-8

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 6 December 2018

Aziza Sultana Rosy Sarkar and Md Nurul Islam

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the trend of life expectancy in Bangladesh and find the effect of eliminating the causes of diseases on life expectancy statistics.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the trend of life expectancy in Bangladesh and find the effect of eliminating the causes of diseases on life expectancy statistics.

Design/methodology/approach

Data consisted of 1,530 deaths in 2000, 1,582 deaths in 2004 and 1,514 deaths in 2008 that were collected from the Health and Demographic Surveillance System of International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh. Trends in life expectancy after eliminating the cause of diseases were examined by a Single Decrement Life table.

Findings

The expectation of life for both male and female presented differing patterns. Results showed that life expectancies were greatly reduced in the presence of all groups of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the community, whilst life expectancies were significantly improved if all NCDs within all disease groups were completely eliminated. The life expectancies in the presence of NCDs showed lowest expected years among all the present diseases groups and the life expectancies eliminating NCDs showed highest expected years among all the eliminating diseases groups. The results indicated that 10.99 years of life would be added to life expectancy at birth for the male population and 8.82 years for the female population in 2008 if NCDs were eliminated.

Originality/value

The findings of this study provide useful information which could contribute to a more effective allocation of targeted funding for developing public health programs. Lowering mortality by eliminating major groups of diseases results in higher life expectancy ratings. Specifically, the relative impacts of eliminating cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases, as compared with eliminating neoplasms.

Details

Journal of Health Research, vol. 32 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2586-940X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 16 August 2014

Parnali Dhar Chowdhury and C. Emdad Haque

The purpose of this chapter is to offer reflections on conventional theories concerning causes and determinants of diseases. It also intends to examine both theoretical and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this chapter is to offer reflections on conventional theories concerning causes and determinants of diseases. It also intends to examine both theoretical and empirical bases for adopting an Integrated Social-Ecological Systems (ISES) lens as a tool for understanding complexities related to drivers, determinants and causes of diseases.

Design/methodology/approach

We assessed the theoretical underpinnings of a range of historical and contemporary lenses for viewing infectious disease drivers and the implications of their use when used to explain both personal (i.e. individual) and population health. We examined these issues within the empirical context of the City of Dhaka (Bangladesh) by adopting an ISES lens. Within this study an emphasis has been placed on illustrating how feedback loops and non-linearity functions in systems have a direct bearing upon various aspects of infectious disease occurrences.

Findings

A brief triumph over microbes during the last century stemmed in part from our improved understanding of disease causation which was built using disciplinary-specific, monocausal approaches to the study of disease emergence. Subsequently, empirical inquiries into the multi-factorial aetiology and the ‘web of causation’ of disease emergence have extended frameworks beyond simplistic, individualistic descriptions of disease causation. Nonetheless, much work is yet to be done to understand the roles of complex, intertwined, multi-level, social-ecological factors in affecting disease occurrence. We argue, a transdisciplinary-oriented, ISES lens is needed to explain the complexities of disease occurrence at various and interacting levels. More theoretical and empirical formulations, with evidence derived from various parts of the world, is also required to further the debate.

Originality/value

Our study advances the theoretical as well as empirical basis for considering an integrated human-nature systems approach to explaining disease occurrence at all levels so that factors at the individual, household/neighbourhood, local, regional and global levels are not treated in isolation.

Details

Ecological Health: Society, Ecology and Health
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-323-0

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 23 October 2003

Beth E Jackson

Epidemiology is often described as “the basic science of public health” (Savitz, Poole & Miller, 1999; Syme & Yen, 2000). This description suggests both a close association with…

Abstract

Epidemiology is often described as “the basic science of public health” (Savitz, Poole & Miller, 1999; Syme & Yen, 2000). This description suggests both a close association with public health practice, and the separation of “pure” scientific knowledge from its application in the messy social world. Although the attainability of absolute objectivity is rarely claimed, epidemiologists are routinely encouraged to “persist in their efforts to substitute evidence for faith in scientific reasoning” (Stolley, 1985, p. 38) and reminded that “public health decision makers gain little from impassioned scholars who go beyond advancing and explaining the science to promoting a specific public health agenda” (Savitz et al., 1999, p. 1160). Epidemiology produces authoritative data that are transformed into evidence which informs public health. Those data are authoritative because epidemiology is regarded as a neutral scientific enterprise. Because its claims are grounded in science, epidemiological knowledge is deemed to have “a special technical status and hence is not contestable in the same way as are say, religion or ethics” (Lock, 1988, p. 6). Despite the veneer of universality afforded by its scientific pedigree, epidemiology is not a static or monolithic discipline. Epidemiological truth claims are embodied in several shifting paradigms that span the life of the discipline. Public health knowledges and practices, competing claims internal and external to epidemiology, and structural conditions (such as current political economies, material technologies, and institutions) provide important contexts in which certain kinds of epidemiological knowledge are more likely to emerge.

Details

Gender Perspectives on Health and Medicine
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-239-9

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1973

Reid, Wilberforce, Simon of Glaisdale, Kilbrandon and Salmon

November 15, 1972 Negligence — Duty of care — Brick kiln — Workman exposed to dust — Dermatitis contracted — No washing facilities provided — Material increase in risk of

Abstract

November 15, 1972 Negligence — Duty of care — Brick kiln — Workman exposed to dust — Dermatitis contracted — No washing facilities provided — Material increase in risk of contracting disease — Material contribution to contracting disease — Employers' liability.

Details

Managerial Law, vol. 13 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0558

Book part
Publication date: 24 August 2005

Masazumi Harada

Minamata disease was first officially recognized in May 1956. Its earliest victims were small children. Environmental contamination most rapidly and seriously affected the…

Abstract

Minamata disease was first officially recognized in May 1956. Its earliest victims were small children. Environmental contamination most rapidly and seriously affected the physiologically weak among the residents. However, the outbreak of the disease in humans was preceded by abnormalities in the natural environment such as massive death of fish and shellfish, and the abnormal behavior and death of cats. It used to be considered that poisoning was caused by direct exposure to a toxic substance, and that toxic substances did not pass the placenta. Minamata disease is an indirect poisoning by methyl mercury through the food chain as a result of environmental contamination, and is the first known disease to cause abnomalities in the fetus due to a toxic agent passing through the placenta. Minamata disease, therefore, had implications in various fields. Namely it also stirred up legal, ethical, and eugenic arguments concerning fetal protection. This report reviews the course of Minamata disease, and evaluates its impacts. “Minamata Studies” has three intellectual and scientific missions to change the social systems that caused the disease; to pursue environmental justice; and to explore the possibility of an environment that permits coexistence not only of all humans, but of all living things.

Details

Taking Life and Death Seriously - Bioethics from Japan
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-206-1

Article
Publication date: 11 May 2015

Hyeongi Baek and Mun Koo Kang

The purpose of this study was to construct a mind counseling ontology to efficiently facilitate the diagnosis of the diseases of mind. To determine the structure of mind…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to construct a mind counseling ontology to efficiently facilitate the diagnosis of the diseases of mind. To determine the structure of mind counseling ontology, this study conducted analysis on structural forms available in counseling books and other related fields and adopted essential ones in the explanation of counseling. The processing of the diseases of mind was divided into three stages: cause, symptoms and counseling. The stages were analyzed one by one in terms of process, functional elements and relevant technique necessary at each stage.

Design/methodology/approach

In the mind counseling list, there are 12 different diagnoses of diseases of mind that are classified into four classes. Thus, the causes, symptoms, prescription and medical history for 12 diseases of mind are defined as a higher rank concept of mind counseling ontology. The causes, symptoms, prescription and medical history consist of definition, affective characteristics and related factors, while the potential diagnosis consists of definition and risk factor. This information does specify detailed notions in the diagnosis of diseases of mind, but considering the limitation of not being able to represent all the diseases, this study enables a counseling center to give and use individual definitions of diagnostic terminology of their own.

Findings

This study adopted the top-down approach, in which mind counseling ontology defines a higher rank concept, the terminology in diagnosing diseases of mind, based on the list of terms from the counseling record that specifies the abstract concepts of the diagnosis. The bottom-up approach was also incorporated, which defines the diagnostic terms extracted from the counseling record as a subordinate concept of the mind counseling ontology. Thus, the development of the mind counseling ontology involves the combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches to the construction of ontology.

Originality/value

This research has significance in that it deals with the fundamental problem of the mind aiming for a true change and healing of it, which is the ultimate purpose of this ontology, especially in the circumstances where research on ontology in diagnosing the diseases of mind is unprecedented.

Details

Journal of Systems and Information Technology, vol. 17 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1328-7265

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 1 November 2008

Bernard Harris

In recent years, a number of historians have examined the reasons for differences in the height and health of men and women in nineteenth-century Britain, often drawing on…

Abstract

In recent years, a number of historians have examined the reasons for differences in the height and health of men and women in nineteenth-century Britain, often drawing on economic studies which link excess female mortality in the developing world to restrictions in women's employment opportunities. This paper re-examines this literature and summarises the existing literature on sex-specific differences in height, weight and mortality in England and Wales before 1850. It then uses two electronic datasets to examine changes in cause-specific mortality rates between 1851 and 1995. Although there is little evidence to support the view that the systematic neglect of female children was responsible for high rates of female mortality in childhood, there is rather more evidence to show that gender inequalities contributed to excess female mortality in adulthood.

Details

Research in Economic History
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-337-8

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