Diarrhea incidence in low- and middle-income countries in 1990 and 2010: a systematic review.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Diarrhea is recognized as a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children under 5 years of age in low- and middle-income countries yet updated estimates of diarrhea incidence by age for these countries are greatly needed. We conducted a systematic literature review to identify cohort studies that sought to quantify diarrhea incidence among any age group of children 0-59 mo of age.

Methods

We used the Expectation-Maximization algorithm as a part of a two-stage regression model to handle diverse age data and overall incidence rate variation by study to generate country specific incidence rates for low- and middle-income countries for 1990 and 2010. We then calculated regional incidence rates and uncertainty ranges using the bootstrap method, and estimated

SUBMITTER: Fischer Walker CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3323412 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature