title: Tracers for paralysis agitans in epidemiological research. III. Refinement of the model for estimation of the prevalence of the disease.
abstract: The study presents a refinement of a preliminary model for estimation of the prevalence of Parkinson's disease (PA) from information on sales of L-dopa derivatives (LDD) and demographic data. The new model made use of a set of age-specific equations describing PA prevalences obtained from historical surveys and local infant mortality rates (IMR). This strategy made it possible to obtain age-specific estimates of PA prevalence and adjust for differences in health services quality. The new model was tested using data from Sardinia and Iceland. The results are in agreement with the field surveys. When the model was tested in Sweden in 1983-1984 using data on age-specific consumption of LDD, the results also validated the model. The new refined model was found to be useful for estimation of age-specific prevalence from available data on total sales of LDD, the population and infant mortality rates.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003710:Demography; D004363:Drug Utilization; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007055:Iceland; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007558:Italy; D007980:Levodopa / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011336:Probability; D012737:Sex Factors; D013548:Sweden
chemical_list: D007980:Levodopa