Articles: mortality.
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Comparative Study
UK national population projections in perspective: how successful compared to those in other European countries?
Compared to population forecasts of other European countries, those made in the United Kingdom during the past 30 years had somewhat larger forecast errors for fertility and smaller errors for mortality. Migration forecasts in the UK were about as accurate as the European average. After controlling for various effects such as relative data volatility both at the time a projection is made and during the period of the projection, there is no indication that recent forecasts in European countries have been more accurate than older ones. Hence population forecasts are intrinsically uncertain, and a forecast for the UK in the form of probability distributions is presented.
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Bmc Health Serv Res · Jan 2007
Do the UK government's new Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) scores adequately measure primary care performance? A cross-sectional survey of routine healthcare data.
General practitioners' remuneration is now linked directly to the scores attained in the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF). The success of this approach depends in part on designing a robust and clinically meaningful set of indicators. The aim of this study was to assess the extent to which measures of health observed in practice populations are correlated with their QOF scores, after accounting for the established associations between health outcomes and socio-demographics. ⋯ The associations between QOF scores and emergency admissions and mortality were small and inconsistent, whilst the impact of socio-economic deprivation on the outcomes was much stronger. These results have implications for the use of target-based remuneration of general practitioners and emphasise the need to tackle inequalities and improve the health of disadvantaged groups and the population as a whole.
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The aim of the study was to determine the nature and size of the hygienical impact of social crisis on the public health of the population of a Circumpolar region. The study was carried out in the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic (area 3.1 million km2; population nearly 1 million). The analysis of health indicators was done using demographic and hygienical methods, and 15-year (1989-2005) statistical data from the Federal State Statistic Service division in the Sakha Republic. ⋯ Such low mortality due to degenerative diseases was predetermined by the small percent of the elderly in the age structure (8.4%), which was 2.5-fold lower compared to Russia and developed countries. The public health status of the residents of Circumpolar areas was extremely sensitive to socioeconomic changes. The social crisis had a multifactorial effect on lifestyle, quality of life-supporting infrastructure, and particularly, on the medical care system, with highly negative hygienical implications.
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The terrorist bombings in London on July 7, 2005, produced the largest mass casualty event in the UK since World War 2. The aim of this study was to analyse the prehospital and in-hospital response to the incident and identify system processes that optimise resource use and reduce critical mortality. ⋯ Critical mortality was reduced by rapid advanced major incident management and seems unrelated to over-triage. Hospital surge capacity can be maintained by repeated effective triage and implementing a hospital-wide damage control philosophy, keeping investigations to a minimum, and transferring patients rapidly to definitive care.
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Few investigations have evaluated the incremental usefulness of multiple biomarkers from distinct biologic pathways for predicting the risk of cardiovascular events. ⋯ For assessing risk in individual persons, the use of the 10 contemporary biomarkers that we studied adds only moderately to standard risk factors.