title: Estimation of the gastric cancer incidence in Tehran by two- source capture-recapture.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Capture-recapture methods have been suggested for reducing costs of disease registration as well as reducing bias in incidence estimations. This study aimed to estimate the gastric cancer incidence in theTehran metropolis population during 2002-2006.
  
  
  METHODS
  We investigated new cases of gastric cancer reported by three sources; death certificates, pathology reports, and medical records to Tehran population-based cancer registry during 2002-2006. G2 statistics and the two-source capture-recapture method were used to select the best-fitted log-linear model and to estimate incidence, respectively. EXCEL software version 2007 and SPSS software version 16 were used for this research.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The number of reported cases was 4,463, with an average age of 68.5 (±12.9) years. We found the model that combined two sources of data including pathology reports and medical records and furthermore complemented by death certificates as the best model. The reported and the estimated incidences were 11.0 and 27.1 per 100,000 respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The incidence estimated by two- source capture-recapture method is about three times higher than the incidence reported by the sources under investigation. It is recommended to move towards the implementation of population-based cancer registration using various sources of data collection to achieve more accurate data.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Research Development Center, Imam Khomeini Hospital, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran. rmosavi@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aghaei
authors.forename: Toraj
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ahmadi-Jouibari
authors.forename: Omid
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Baiki
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mosavi-Jarrahi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D003644:Death Certificates; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*