Bayesian estimation of colorectal cancer mortality in the presence of misclassification in Iran.
BACKGROUND
Colorectal cancer is the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the world. Addressing the burden of related mortality is therefore important but according to the Iranian mortality registry, about 20% of death statistics were still recorded in misclassified categories. The aim of this study is to re-estimate the CRC mortality rate for Iranian population, using a Bayesian approach in order to revise this misclassification.


METHODS
National Death Statistics Reported by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOH and ME) from 1995 to 2003 were included in this analysis. The Bayesian approach to correct and account for misclassification effects in Poisson count regression was employed to estimate the mortality rates by age and sex group.


RESULTS
According to the Bayesian re-estimate there were between 30 to 40 percent underreported mortality records in death due to colorectal cancer and the rate for related mortality had moderately increased through recent years.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest a substantial undercount of colorectal cancer mortality in the Iranian population. Therefore healthcare policy makers who determine research and treatment priorities from death rates as indicators of public health problems should pay notice to this underreporting.
Pourhoseingholi
Mohamad Amin
MA
Department of Biostatistics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
Faghihzadeh
Soghrat
S
Hajizadeh
Ebrahim
E
Abadi
Alireza
A
Zali
Mohammad Reza
MR
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000145:classification* / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D012042:Registries; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D015996:Survival Rate; D055815:Young Adult