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Deborah Symmons of the Arthritis Research Campaign Epidemiology Unit in Manchester has summarised the available data on the arthritides. Lesley Kay -----Original Message----- From: Leahy George <[log in to unmask]> To: 'Evidence Based Health' <[log in to unmask]>; [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> Date: 22 February 1999 17:20 Subject: Information on Chronic Disease Prevalence >Below is an extract from a piece of work a colleague is working on. Is >anyone systematically collecting this sort of information? I'll >summarise replies if there is a sufficient response. > >George Leahy >Health Economist > >"All that is solid, melts into air" > >The Problem. > >Public Health Information Units often get requests for data on the >prevalence of chronic disease usually in the context of service planning >and sometimes with very short deadlines. Recent requests in ELCHA >concerned Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Diabetes. The best that >can be done usually is to take national or survey based estimates of >rates by age, sex and other relevant characteristics like ethnicity and >apply them to local population estimates. (There is better data for >cancer) Finding data on such rates currently depends on personal >knowledge and/or research which may take significant time and may yield >unreliable answers where expertise is limited. As far as is known there >is no systematic source of information in this area although a good deal >is contained in the Health Care Needs Assessments. > > > > > > > > > >______________________________________________________ >East London & The City Health Authority does not >accept any responsibility for the content of this e-mail >nor for any consequence of its use and storage. > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%