title: National and sub-national burden of infectious diseases in Iran, 1990 to 2013: the study protocol.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To assess the burden of infectious diseases, it is necessary to utilize a systematic approach for data collection and deploying the sophisticated methods to estimate the burden of infectious diseases for health policy making at national level. The present study protocol is aimed to provide a comprehensive explanation of the general structure and method used in the national and sub-national burden of selected infectious diseases study in Iran from 1990 to 2013.
  
  
  METHODS
  The trend, burden, and geographical inequality pattern of infectious diseases will be estimated through a comprehensive review of published and unpublished data. Different sources of data including health surveys, surveillance data, hospital data surveys, death registry system, census, household expenditure survey, and published manuscripts will be synthesized to calculate the estimates. All indicators will be reported by gender, age, and geographic area. Two different statistical models include "Spatio-Temporal" and "Bayesian multilevel autoregressive" will be applied to overcome the scarcity and misalignment of the obtained data.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Estimating the prevalence trend and burden of infectious diseases would be helpful to use more cost-effective interventions considering sub-national variations. Additionally, the information obtained from these studies can depict the ability of health system authorities in controlling these types of diseases.  Overall, the present applied models can be deployed as a part of inputs in further studies to estimate the burden of diseases, not only in Iran but also all around the Middle East countries.
authors.affiliation: Non-communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinical Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. f-farzadfar@tums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Atefeh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Noori
authors.affiliation: Regional Knowledge Hub, and WHO Collaborating Centre, Institute For Futures Studies In Health, Kerman University Of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Mostafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shokoohi
authors.affiliation: Non-communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Babak
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Moazen
authors.affiliation: Kurdistan Research Center for Social Determinants of Health (KRCSDH), Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran.
authors.forename: Ghobad
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Moradi
authors.affiliation: Non-communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Shohreh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naderimagham
authors.affiliation: Non-communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Department of Maternal and Child Health, Nursing and Midwifery School, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Department of Midwifery and Reproductive Health, Nursing and Midwifery School, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Shayesteh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hajizadeh
authors.affiliation: Non-communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinical Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zohouri Zangeneh
authors.affiliation: Center for Disease Control (CDC), Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Mehdi
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Gouya
authors.affiliation: Non-communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinical Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Farshad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Farzadfar
mesh_terms: D017281:Cost of Illness; D015340:Epidemiologic Research Design; D006801:Humans; D007239:Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors