Contribution of chronic diseases to the disability burden in a population 15 years and older, Belgium, 1997-2008

Background: Age-associated disability reduces quality of life in older populations and leads to wide-range implications for social and health policy. The identification of diseases that contribute to the disability burden is crucial to the development of prevention and intervention strategies to reduce disability. In this study, we assessed the contribution of chronic diseases to the prevalence of disability in Belgium. Methods: Data from 35,837 individuals aged 15 years or older who participated in the 1997, 2001, 2004, or 2008 Belgian Health Interview Surveys were used. Disability was defined as difficulties in doing at least one of six activities of daily living (transfer in and out of bed, transfer in and out of chair, dressing, washing hands and face, feeding, and going to the toilet) and/or mobility limitations (ability to walk without stopping less than 200 m). Multiple additive regression models were fitted separately for men and women to estimate the age-specific background disability rate (experienced by everyone, independent of the presence of specific diseases) and disease-specific disability rates (disability rate in subjects who reported selected chronic diseases). Results: Musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases were the main contributors to the disability burden in Belgium. Musculoskeletal diseases were the most prevalent diseases in men and women in all age groups. Neurological diseases and stroke were the most disabling diseases, i.e. caused the highest level of disability among the diseased individuals, in all age groups for men and women, respectively. Back pain was the main cause of disability in men aged 15 to 64 years, while heart attack was the major contributor to the disability prevalence in men aged 65 or older. Likewise, arthritis was the main cause of disability among women across all age groups. Depression was also an important contributor in young subjects (15-54 years). Cancer was not an important contributor to the disability prevalence in Belgium. Conclusions: To reduce the burden of disability in Belgium, interventions should target musculoskeletal, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases especially among elderly. Furthermore, attention should also be given to depression in young individuals

Socioeconomic inequalities in suicide mortality in European urban areas before and during the economic recession

Few studies have assessed the impact of the financial crisis on inequalities in suicide mortality in European urban areas. The objective of the study was to analyse the trend in area socioeconomic inequalities in suicide mortality in nine European urban areas before and after the beginning of the financial crisis. This ecological study of trends was based on three periods, two before the economic crisis (2000-2003, 2004-2008) and one during the crisis (2009-2014). The units of analysis were the small areas of nine European cities or metropolitan areas, with a median population ranging from 271 (Turin) to 193 630 (Berlin). For each small area and sex, we analysed smoothed standardized mortality ratios of suicide mortality and their relationship with a socioeconomic deprivation index using a hierarchical Bayesian model. Among men, the relative risk (RR) comparing suicide mortality of the 95th percentile value of socioeconomic deprivation (severe deprivation) to its 5th percentile value (low deprivation) were higher than 1 in Stockholm and Lisbon in the three periods. In Barcelona, the RR was 2.06 (95% credible interval: 1.24-3.21) in the first period, decreasing in the other periods. No significant changes were observed across the periods. Among women, a positive significant association was identified only in Stockholm (RR around 2 in the three periods). There were no significant changes across the periods except in London with a RR of 0.49 (95% CI: 0.35-0.68) in the third period. Area socioeconomic inequalities in suicide mortality did not change significantly after the onset of the crisis in the areas studied

Fragment-Sized EthR Inhibitors Exhibit Exceptionally Strong Ethionamide Boosting Effect in Whole-Cell Mycobacterium tuberculosis\textit{Mycobacterium tuberculosis} Assays

Small-molecule inhibitors of the mycobacterial transcriptional repressor EthR have previously been shown to act as boosters of the second-line antituberculosis drug ethionamide. Fragment-based drug discovery approaches have been used in the past to make highly potent EthR inhibitors with ethionamide boosting activity both $\textit{in vitro}$ and $\textit{ex vivo}$. Herein, we report the development of fragment-sized EthR ligands with nanomolar minimum effective concentration values for boosting the ethionamide activity in $\textit{Mycobacterium tuberculosis}$ whole-cell assays.We would like to thank A. Coyne for help in the preparation of this manuscript. P.O.N. would like to thank the EPSRC for providing Ph.D. funding. We also thank the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the EU FP7MM4TB Grant No. 260872, the ERC-STG INTRACELLTB Grant No. 260901, the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-10-EQPX-04-01), the Feder (12001407 (D-AL) Equipex Imaginex BioMed), the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health/NIAID, and the Région Nord Pas de Calais, France, for providing funding to support this work

Advancing tools to promote health equity across European Union regions : The EURO-HEALTHY project

Population health measurements are recognised as appropriate tools to support public health monitoring. Yet, there is still a lack of tools that offer a basis for policy appraisal and for foreseeing impacts on health equity. In the context of persistent regional inequalities, it is critical to ascertain which regions are performing best, which factors might shape future health outcomes and where there is room for improvement. Under the EURO-HEALTHY project, tools combining the technical elements of multi-criteria value models and the social elements of participatory processes were developed to measure health in multiple dimensions and to inform policies. The flagship tool is the Population Health Index (PHI), a multidimensional measure that evaluates health from the lens of equity in health determinants and health outcomes, further divided into sub-indices. Foresight tools for policy analysis were also developed, namely: (1) scenarios of future patterns of population health in Europe in 2030, combining group elicitation with the Extreme-World method and (2) a multi-criteria evaluation framework informing policy appraisal (case study of Lisbon). Finally, a WebGIS was built to map and communicate the results to wider audiences. The Population Health Index was applied to all European Union (EU) regions, indicating which regions are lagging behind and where investments are most needed to close the health gap. Three scenarios for 2030 were produced - (1) the 'Failing Europe' scenario (worst case/increasing inequalities), (2) the 'Sustainable Prosperity' scenario (best case/decreasing inequalities) and (3) the 'Being Stuck' scenario (the EU and Member States maintain the status quo). Finally, the policy appraisal exercise conducted in Lisbon illustrates which policies have higher potential to improve health and how their feasibility can change according to different scenarios. The article makes a theoretical and practical contribution to the field of population health. Theoretically, it contributes to the conceptualisation of health in a broader sense by advancing a model able to integrate multiple aspects of health, including health outcomes and multisectoral determinants. Empirically, the model and tools are closely tied to what is measurable when using the EU context but offering opportunities to be upscaled to other settings

Socio-economic inequalities in health expectancy in Belgium.

&lt;p&gt;Various international studies have demonstrated socio-economic differences in health. Linking the 1991 Census to the National Register and using the Health Interview Survey 1997 has enabled assessment of the association between the level of education and health in Belgium using the composite indicator &#039;health expectancy&#039;. The Sullivan method was used to calculate health expectancy on the basis of current probability of death and prevalence of perceived health. Two measures of educational attainment were used: absolute educational attainment and the position on a relative hierarchical educational scale obtained by a regression-based method. The latter measure enables international comparisons. Differences in health expectancy by education were spread over the whole range of the educational hierarchy, and were consistently larger among females than males. At 25 years of age, the difference in health expectancy between different levels of education reached up to 17.8 and 24.7 years in males and females, respectively. Compared with people with the highest educational attainment, males and females at the lowest level of education spent more than 10 and 20 additional years in poor perceived health, respectively. Between ages 25 and 75 years, the difference in health expectancy between people with the lowest and highest levels of education was 17 years among males and 21 years among females. Compared with people at the top of the relative educational scale, males and females at the bottom of the scale had 13.6 and 19.7 additional years in poor perceived health, respectively. The conclusions of this study in Belgium are consistent with studies in other countries. People with a low level of education have shorter lives than people with a higher level of education. They also have fewer years in good perceived health, and can expect more years in poor health in their shorter lives. The inequality in health expectancy seems to be greater in females than males.&lt;/p&gt;</p

Residential green space, air pollution, socioeconomic deprivation and cardiovascular medication sales in Belgium: A nationwide ecological study

Green space may improve cardiovascular (CV) health, for example by promoting physical activity and by reducing air pollution, noise and heat.&nbsp; Socioeconomic and environmental factors may modify the health effects of green space. We examined the association between residential green space and reimbursed CV medication sales in Belgium between 2006 and 2014, adjusting for socioeconomic deprivation and air pollution.&nbsp; We analyzed data for 11,575 census tracts using structural equation models for the entire country and for the administrative regions.&nbsp; Latent variables for green space, air pollution and socioeconomic deprivation were used as predictors of CV medication sales and were estimated from the number of patches of forest, census tract relative forest cover and relative forest cover within a 600 m buffer around the census tract; annual mean concentrations of PM2.5, BC and NO2; and percentages of inhabitants that were foreign-born from lower- and mid-income countries, unemployed or had no higher education. A direct association between socioeconomic deprivation and CV medication sales [parameter estimate (95% CI): 0.26 (0.25; 0.28)] and inverse associations between CV medication sales and green space [–0.71 (–0.80; –0.61)] and air pollution [–1.62 (–1.69; –0.61)] were observed.&nbsp; In the regional models, the association between green space and CV medication sales was stronger in the region with relatively low green space cover (Flemish Region, standardized estimate –0.16) than in the region with high green space cover (Walloon Region, –0.10).&nbsp; In the highly urbanized Brussels Capital Region the association tended towards the null. In all regions, the associations between CV medication sales and socioeconomic deprivation were direct and more prominent. Our results suggest that there may be an inverse association between green space and CV medication sales, but socioeconomic deprivation was always the strongest predictor of CV medication&nbsp;sales.</p