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Article Collection: Health Registers and Administrative Data Collections in Neuroepidemiology
Prospective and population-based cohort studies are often considered as a ‘gold-standard’ study design to investigate the epidemiological features such as incidence, prevalence, mortality and risk factors of various neurological disorders. However, since such studies require a lot of personal and financial resources, they are rarely conducted on a national level or over a long period of time. This limits their reliability in studying the epidemiological aspects of especially relatively rare neurological disorders with substantial differences between geographical regions, population groups and time periods.
As a more comprehensive and cost-efficient alternative, a combination of national health registers and administrative data sources may provide superior platforms to investigate the nationwide epidemiological measures of various diseases affecting the nervous system as well as their time trends and regional differences. Even though these data sources have also their typical shortcomings (e.g., less accurate case ascertainment compared to prospective studies) that need to be considered, they are generally underused in neuroepidemiology. In fact, the combination of such registers/collections with traditional prospective cohort studies yields the most comprehensive understanding of the epidemiological features of most neurological disorders.
The present article collection – Health Registers and Administrative Data Collections in Neuroepidemiology – consists of seven publications that provide recent discoveries in neuroepidemiology based on versatile health registers and administrative data collections around the world. Moreover, the collection presents some of the key methodological limitations related to such data sources and the importance of their consideration while reporting reliable epidemiological estimates.
The articles in this collection were spontaneously submitted to the journal. The collection is curated by Dr. Ilari Rautalin (The National Institute for Stroke and Applied Neurosciences, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand).
Conflict of Interest Statement: Dr. Ilari Rautalin has no conflict of interests to declare.
Image: PhotoPlus+ – stock.adobe.com
As a more comprehensive and cost-efficient alternative, a combination of national health registers and administrative data sources may provide superior platforms to investigate the nationwide epidemiological measures of various diseases affecting the nervous system as well as their time trends and regional differences. Even though these data sources have also their typical shortcomings (e.g., less accurate case ascertainment compared to prospective studies) that need to be considered, they are generally underused in neuroepidemiology. In fact, the combination of such registers/collections with traditional prospective cohort studies yields the most comprehensive understanding of the epidemiological features of most neurological disorders.
The present article collection – Health Registers and Administrative Data Collections in Neuroepidemiology – consists of seven publications that provide recent discoveries in neuroepidemiology based on versatile health registers and administrative data collections around the world. Moreover, the collection presents some of the key methodological limitations related to such data sources and the importance of their consideration while reporting reliable epidemiological estimates.
The articles in this collection were spontaneously submitted to the journal. The collection is curated by Dr. Ilari Rautalin (The National Institute for Stroke and Applied Neurosciences, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand).
Conflict of Interest Statement: Dr. Ilari Rautalin has no conflict of interests to declare.
Image: PhotoPlus+ – stock.adobe.com
