title: National and sub-national prevalence, trend, and burden of asthma in Iran from 1990 to 2013; the study protocol.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Asthma is a chronic inflammatory airway disease caused or worsened by environmental factors in genetically vulnerable people. The study of national and sub-national burden of asthma aims to provide a quantitative method and valid estimates for the prevalence, incidence, and economic burden of asthma disease in Iran from 1990 to 2013 and this papers explains measures, data sources, methods, and challenges that we will use in the study.
  
  
  METHODS
  In order to conduct this study, we will use all available unpublished data sources, including claim databases and data collected by the food and drug organization (FDO). Moreover, we will devise and run a systematic review of all studies and literature published about asthma epidemiology in Iran, which includes all cross-sectional, cohort and case-control studies with asthma epidemiology focus that are population based. In this study, we will use two statistical models, including spatio-temporal and multilevel autoregressive models to estimate mean and uncertainty intervals for the parameters under study by gender, age, year, and province. All programs will be written in R statistical packages (version 3.0.1).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study helps to obtain information concerning the variation among regions and provinces, and in general among sub-national divisions. Our study can be contribute to better allocation of resources, since it helps policymakers to recognize inequalities between regions and provinces and consequently help them to allocate resources more efficiently.
authors.affiliation: 1)Department of Pharmacoeconomics and Pharmaceutical Administration, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 2)Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran, Iran. f-Farzadfar@tums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Varmaghani
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Management and Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Arash
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rashidian
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacoeconomics and Pharmaceutical Administration, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kebriaeezadeh
authors.affiliation: Community Medicine Department, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Maziar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moradi-Lakeh
authors.affiliation: Immunology, Asthma and Allergy Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, I.R. Iran.
authors.forename: Mostafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moin
authors.affiliation: Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Anoosheh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghasemian
authors.affiliation: 6)Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 2)Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ehsan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rezaei-Darzi
authors.affiliation: 7)Digestive Disease Research Institute, Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 2)Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Sadaf Ghajarieh
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Sepanlou
authors.affiliation: 2)Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 8)Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute,tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 9)6Development of Research and Technology Center, Deputy of Research and Technology, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Niloofar
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Peykari
authors.affiliation: Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Nazila
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rezaei
authors.affiliation: 6)Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 2)Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mahboubeh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Parsaeian
authors.affiliation: 2)Non-Communicable Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 8)Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Farshad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Farzadfar
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002985:Clinical Protocols; D017281:Cost of Illness; D016208:Databases, Factual; D015340:Epidemiologic Research Design; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D015233:Models, Statistical; D055361:Multilevel Analysis; D015995:Prevalence; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years; D062211:Spatio-Temporal Analysis; D000078202:Systematic Reviews as Topic