title: A Software Tool for Estimation of Burden of Infectious Diseases in Europe Using Incidence-Based Disability Adjusted Life Years.
abstract: The burden of disease framework facilitates the assessment of the health impact of diseases through the use of summary measures of population health such as Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). However, calculating, interpreting and communicating the results of studies using this methodology poses a challenge. The aim of the Burden of Communicable Disease in Europe (BCoDE) project is to summarize the impact of communicable disease in the European Union and European Economic Area Member States (EU/EEA MS). To meet this goal, a user-friendly software tool (BCoDE toolkit), was developed. This stand-alone application, written in C++, is open-access and freely available for download from the website of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). With the BCoDE toolkit, one can calculate DALYs by simply entering the age group- and sex-specific number of cases for one or more of selected sets of 32 communicable diseases (CDs) and 6 healthcare associated infections (HAIs). Disease progression models (i.e., outcome trees) for these communicable diseases were created following a thorough literature review of their disease progression pathway. The BCoDE toolkit runs Monte Carlo simulations of the input parameters and provides disease-specific results, including 95% uncertainty intervals, and permits comparisons between the different disease models entered. Results can be displayed as mean and median overall DALYs, DALYs per 100,000 population, and DALYs related to mortality vs. disability. Visualization options summarize complex epidemiological data, with the goal of improving communication and knowledge transfer for decision-making.
authors.affiliation: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Solna, Sweden.
authors.forename: Edoardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Colzani
authors.affiliation: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Solna, Sweden.|Julius Centre for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cassini
authors.affiliation: NextPage Software Daniel Lewandowski, Zielona Gora, Poland.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lewandowski
authors.affiliation: Julius Centre for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.|Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marie-Josee J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Mangen
authors.affiliation: Section Exposure Assessment and Environmental Health Indicators, German Environment Agency, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Dietrich
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Plass
authors.affiliation: Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Scott A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.affiliation: Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Alies
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van Lier
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Health, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.|Department of Public Health, Erasmus Medical Center, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Juanita A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Haagsma
authors.affiliation: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Solna, Sweden.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Maringhini
authors.affiliation: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Solna, Sweden.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pini
authors.affiliation: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Solna, Sweden.
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kramarz
authors.affiliation: Julius Centre for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.|Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mirjam E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Kretzschmar
mesh_terms: D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D017281:Cost of Illness; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005062:European Union / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years; D012984:Software