Bulletin of the World Health Organization
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Bull. World Health Organ. · Dec 2004
Global estimate of the incidence of clinical pneumonia among children under five years of age.
Clinical pneumonia (defined as respiratory infections associated with clinical signs of pneumonia, principally pneumonia and bronchiolitis) in children under five years of age is still the leading cause of childhood mortality in the world. In this paper we aim to estimate the worldwide incidence of clinical pneumonia in young children. ⋯ The overlap between the ranges of the estimates implies that a plausible incidence estimate of clinical pneumonia for developing countries is 0.29 e/cy. This equates to an annual incidence of 150.7 million new cases, 11-20 million (7-13%) of which are severe enough to require hospital admission. In the developed world no comparable data are available. However, large population-based studies report that the incidence of community-acquired pneumonia among children less than five years old is approximately 0.026 e/cy, suggesting that more than 95% of all episodes of clinical pneumonia in young children worldwide occur in developing countries.
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Bull. World Health Organ. · Dec 2004
Comparative Study Historical ArticleICD coding changes and discontinuities in trends in cause-specific mortality in six European countries, 1950-99.
To evaluate how often coding changes between and within revisions of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) complicate the description of long-term trends in cause-specific mortality. ⋯ Despite using a carefully constructed concordance table based on three-digit ICD codes, mortality discontinuities arising as a result of coding changes (both between and within revisions) can lead to substantial changes in long-term trends in cause-specific mortality. Coding changes should therefore be evaluated by researchers and, where necessary, controlled for.