Articles: mortality.
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The war and break up of former Yugoslavia began in 1991. In May 1992 the United Nations imposed economic sanctions on Serbia and Montenegro which were suspended only in November 1995. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of the war and UN sanctions on health of the population of Serbia without the provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo. ⋯ In addition, bureaucratic hurdles of getting clearance from the UN added months of delay and made foreign companies unwilling to trade [5, 7]. The supply and distribution of drugs within the country was also irregular because communication lines were cut and local companies were not prepared to risk distributing drugs that nobody could pay for [7]. Higher than expected mortality in women aged 25-44 over the period 1991-1994 could be probably explained by their higher vulnerability (period of fertility) and the fact that the main burden of family survival was on them, so they had no time to think and to take care of their health. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)
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Critical care medicine · Aug 2000
Comparative StudyCombining physician's subjective and physiology-based objective mortality risk predictions.
None of the currently available physiology-based mortality risk prediction models incorporate subjective judgements of healthcare professionals, a source of additional information that could improve predictor performance and make such systems more acceptable to healthcare professionals. This study compared the performance of subjective mortality estimates by physicians and nurses with a physiology-based method, the Pediatric Risk of Mortality (PRISM) III. Then, healthcare provider estimates were combined with PRISM III estimates using Bayesian statistics. The performance of the Bayesian model was then compared with the original two predictions. ⋯ The results of this study demonstrated that healthcare providers' subjective mortality predictions and PRISM III mortality predictions perform equally well. The Bayesian model that combined provider and PRISM III mortality predictions was more accurate than either provider or PRISM III alone and may be more acceptable to physicians. A methodology using subjective outcome predictions could be more relevant to individual patient decision support.
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Critical care medicine · Aug 2000
Performance of the Mortality Probability Models in assessing severity of illness during the first week in the intensive care unit.
To extend the Mortality Probability Models (MPM) II severity system to time periods between 4 and 7 days after admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). ⋯ If the patient's condition stays the same day after day, the probability of dying in the hospital increases until 72 hrs, and then stabilizes. A severity measure that performs well at 72 hrs can be a useful tool for measuring severity at later time periods.
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Suicide attempts with agricultural chemicals are common in southern Taiwan. Among them, glyphosate-surfactant herbicide (GlySH) intoxication has been encountered with increasing frequency. Although a number of reports have described the clinical course and outcomes following ingestion, predictors of serious complications and mortality have not been elucidated. The purpose of this study was to define predictors of serious complications and probable mortality. ⋯ In managing patients who have larger amount of GlySH ingestion, airway protection, early detection of pulmonary edema, and prevention of further pulmonary damage and renal damage appear to be of critical importance.
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The numbers of deaths attributed to adverse drug reactions by death certificates and by the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) spontaneous postmarketing surveillance system (MedWatch) were compared in order to characterize national mortality statistics. ⋯ The numbers of deaths reported in these data sets varied 34-fold and were up to several 100-fold less than values based on extrapolations of surveillance programs. These differences indicate that better and more comprehensive data are needed to develop appropriate health care policies to improve drug safety.