Population Health Metrics最新文献

{"title":"The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on burden of global injuries: a counterfactual modeling.","authors":"Kexin Cao, Can Chen, Zhenglin Yuan, Rongrong Qu, Wenkai Zhou, Yi Yang, Mengsha Chen, Jiaxing Qi, Jiani Miao, Xiaoyue Wu, Jingtong Zhou, Anqi Dai, Jiaxin Chen, Shanxiang Xu, Mao Zhang, Shigui Yang","doi":"10.1186/s12963-025-00403-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12963-025-00403-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The global burden of injury is a key indicator for assessing public health and medical needs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this burden was impacted. This study aims to explore how the pandemic influenced the injury burden globally and regionally, and provide recommendations to relieve this burden.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The burden of injury-related data is derived from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2021 Study. Autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and ARIMA-Long short-Term Memory (LSTM) models were adopted for counterfactual inference to predict the scenario without the pandemic.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>During the COVID-19 pandemic, the observed global age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) of injury exceeded the predicted value by 107.31 per 100,000, and the observed age-standardized prevalence rate (ASPR) was higher than the predicted value by 102.81 per 100,000. Self-harm and interpersonal violence saw the largest deviations above predicted values in Europe and parts of Asia. Specifically, Armenia's ASIR was 7,829.33 per 100,000 higher than predicted, and its ASDR exceeded projections by 5,186.32 per 100,000. Besides, traffic injuries exceeded predicted levels most significantly in Southeast Asia, with Indonesia's ASIR 25.48 per 100,000 higher than projected. And the observed ASIR of unintentional injuries in China was 379.61 per 100,000 higher than the predicted value.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>During the COVID-19 pandemic, the global burden of injuries surpassed the predicted levels for a scenario without the pandemic in 2020-2021, especially in Europe and Asia. In addressing an epidemic, prevention and emergency measures for high-burden injury types and key populations should be strengthened based on local socio-cultural contexts.</p>","PeriodicalId":51476,"journal":{"name":"Population Health Metrics","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13137603/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147845727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Spatial association and modeling of road traffic deaths in Thailand, 2022.","authors":"Ye Htut Oo, Wongsa Laohasiriwong, Kittipong Sornlorm, Paricha Nippanon","doi":"10.1186/s12963-026-00462-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12963-026-00462-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Road traffic deaths (RTDs) are a major global public health concern. Thailand reports the world's highest fatality rate, at 32.2 deaths per 100,000 population. Despite safety initiatives, evidence on the spatial distribution and determinants of RTDs within Thailand remains limited. This study examined provincial-level spatial patterns of RTDs in 2022 and identified socioeconomic and vehicle-related factors associated with these patterns.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A cross-sectional ecological analysis was conducted using secondary provincial-level data. RTD data were sourced from the Thai Road Safety Collaboration Center (ThaiRSC), and sociodemographic and vehicle registration data from the National Statistical Office. Spatial analyses, including autocorrelation and regression modeling, were performed in QGIS and GeoDa.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Incidence rate of RTDs in 2022 was 22.7 deaths per 100,000 population. High RTD rates clustered in Central and Eastern regions. Bivariate spatial autocorrelation indicated significant positive associations between RTDs and several factors. The spatial lag model (SLM) showed the best fit (R² = 0.50), identifying income and the number of trucks, motorcycles, and sedans per 100,000 population as key predictors.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Spatial analysis reveals substantial provincial disparities in RTD incidence and highlights socioeconomic and vehicle-related determinants. These findings support geospatial data-driven policymaking for targeted interventions to reduce road traffic fatalities.</p>","PeriodicalId":51476,"journal":{"name":"Population Health Metrics","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13130427/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147823328","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Development of a comprehensive mortality database in Japan through data linkage of population census and vital statistics.","authors":"Hirokazu Tanaka, Kota Katanoda, Tomoki Nakaya, Kayo Togawa, Yasuki Kobayashi","doi":"10.1186/s12963-026-00479-0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12963-026-00479-0","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>No official framework exists for linking the Population Census with Vital Statistics in Japan, limiting the ability to monitor health-related inequalities. We aimed to develop a new methodology for data linkage to describe sociodemographic patterns of mortality in the Japanese population.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The 2020 Population Census (n = 120,721,239) and Vital Statistics (death records: n = 2,949,946) between October 2020 and September 2022 were linked using a multi-stage deterministic linkage algorithm. Linkage variables included sex, birth year/month, residential address code (basic unit block, census block, and municipality), marital status, and age of spouse. Residential address codes (basic unit blocks: the smallest geographic unit at the Census) of death records were identified through geocoding of the exact residential address. We compared age-standardized mortality rates (ASMRs: per 100,000 person-years) before and after linkage to assess the validity of mortality. We also estimated ASMRs across multiple sociodemographic indicators, including marital status, household size, educational level, occupation, and area deprivation index (ADI).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Of the total death records, 2,253,228 (76.4%) were linked to the 2020 Census. The 2020 Japanese census-linked mortality database ultimately comprised 109,119,620 non-institutionalized Japanese individuals (90.4% of the total population) and 2,047,152 non-institutionalized death records (69.4% of total deaths). Crude all-cause mortality rates in most 5-year age categories from the database were 10-15% lower than those in the complete mortality registry without linkage; however, the difference was markedly greater in older age groups (aged ≥ 85 years), indicating less successful linkage in the age groups that had the highest mortality rates. ASMRs differed according to educational level, marital status, household size, occupation, and ADI (e.g., higher ASMRs among individuals with lower educational levels).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The new linkage framework, which incorporates detailed address information as a linkage variable, has greatly increased the included population and the completeness of linkage. This approach to developing the census-linked mortality data provides a platform for comparing population health across socioeconomic groups within Japan and Japan's health-related inequalities with those in other countries.</p>","PeriodicalId":51476,"journal":{"name":"Population Health Metrics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147788865","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Perspectives from the new co‑Editor‑in‑Chief of Population Health Metrics.","authors":"Tim Adair","doi":"10.1186/s12963-026-00478-1","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12963-026-00478-1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51476,"journal":{"name":"Population Health Metrics","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13122965/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147788890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Estimating long-term care needs in data-scarce settings: a diagnostic model with evidence from MENA.","authors":"Mohamed Ismail, Priyanka D Kanth, Shereen Hussein","doi":"10.1186/s12963-026-00477-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12963-026-00477-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Rapid population ageing, high burdens of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and limited formal care systems are converging in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, generating an urgent need for evidence-based long-term care (LTC) planning. However, the absence of individual-level data on care dependency hampers assessment and policy design.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We developed a population-based LTC Needs Index to estimate care dependency in data-scarce contexts. The Index integrates demographic ageing, prevalence of disability, and transition probabilities from five major NCDs (cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease) using standardized national and international data sources. Cross-country comparability was ensured through normalization and weighting procedures, and the model's robustness was tested using Bayesian, bootstrap, and deterministic sensitivity analyses.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The LTC Needs Index reveals substantial heterogeneity in care dependency across eight MENA countries, ranging from approximately 3% of the total population in Oman to 22.8% in Saudi Arabia. Projections for 2024-2030 show a consistent upward trend in LTC needs, primarily driven by demographic ageing. Disability emerged as the dominant factor, accounting for 67-94% of total index values, with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases contributing most strongly in Gulf states. Sensitivity analyses confirmed the index's stability under varying assumptions.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The LTC Needs Index offers a scalable, validated diagnostic model for estimating population-level LTC needs in data-limited settings. It highlights the need for differentiated LTC strategies reflecting the varying contributions of disability and NCDs across countries. To advance equity and precision in planning, countries should invest in nationally representative survey data on ageing, disability, and care dependency to capture intra-country inequalities. The Index provides a transferable framework applicable to other data-scarce regions seeking to strengthen long-term care systems and policy preparedness for population ageing.</p>","PeriodicalId":51476,"journal":{"name":"Population Health Metrics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147788901","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The changing landscape of substance use disorders over 30 years: insights on US state disparities and policy from the global burden of disease study.","authors":"Shahrzad Bazargan-Hejazi, Wendy Shang, Najmeh Mohammadi, Kaveh Dehghan, Sanam Ahadi, Misagh Naderi, Anaheed Shirazi","doi":"10.1186/s12963-026-00476-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12963-026-00476-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Substance use disorders (SUDs) remain a major source of preventable morbidity and mortality in the United States. This study described trends in the burden of SUDs from 1990 to 2019 by substance, sex, and age, and examined whether state-level policy environments and behavioral health budgets differed across states with the highest and lowest SUD-related disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a descriptive epidemiologic study using Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 estimates for alcohol, opioid, cocaine, amphetamine, cannabis, and other drug use disorders in the United States. DALYs were the primary outcome and were examined by sex, age, substance, and year. To contextualize state-level disparities, we descriptively summarized behavioral health budget allocations and selected policy domains in states with the three highest and three lowest DALY rates for drug use disorders and alcohol use disorders.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>From 1990 to 2019, prevalent SUD cases in the United States increased from 12.6 million to 19.5 million, and the age-standardized DALY rate for SUDs rose from 725.5 to 2,274.4 per 100,000 population. Opioid use disorders showed the largest increases in both prevalence (618.5%) and DALY rates (643.7%), becoming the leading contributor to SUD-related burden. Cocaine and amphetamine use disorders showed smaller increases in prevalence but larger increases in DALY rates, whereas alcohol use disorder changed modestly and cannabis-related DALY rates remained unchanged. In 2019, the age-standardized DALY rate for SUDs was higher among males than females (2,486.8 vs. 1,722.6 per 100,000 population). Opioid-related DALYs peaked in early adulthood, whereas alcohol-related DALYs peaked in midlife. Substantial geographic variation was observed: drug-related DALY rates were highest in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio and lowest in Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota, while alcohol-related DALY rates were highest in New Mexico, Alaska, and the District of Columbia and lowest in New Jersey, Maryland, and Texas. States with lower burden generally reflected more prevention-oriented and coordinated policy environments, although the presence of policy alone did not consistently correspond to lower burden.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The burden of SUDs in the United States increased substantially over three decades, driven primarily by opioids and with marked variation across sex, age, and geography. Descriptive comparisons suggest that policy context and behavioral health investment may help shape state-level differences, but implementation, treatment access, and broader structural conditions also matter. Coordinated, equitable, and adequately resourced prevention, treatment, and harm-reduction strategies are needed to reduce persistent disparities in SUD-related outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":51476,"journal":{"name":"Population Health Metrics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147730598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Development of a language access index: a mixed methods analysis.","authors":"Dru Bhattacharya","doi":"10.1186/s12963-026-00475-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12963-026-00475-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Language barriers in healthcare are associated with increased adverse events, communication failures, and inequitable outcomes among individuals with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). Despite federal mandates requiring meaningful language access, language services remain inconsistently operationalized and rarely evaluated using standardized system-level metrics. This mixed-methods study developed and preliminarily evaluated a Language Access Index (LAI) as a domain-based preparedness measure to assess organizational capacity for reliable language-concordant care. Phase I employed semi-structured stakeholder interviews using a Jobs-to-Be-Done framework to identify functional system requirements necessary to support safe and equitable communication across care settings. Twelve multidisciplinary stakeholders contributed to domain derivation, yielding ten domains: Access; Patient Experience; Clinical Performance Outcomes; Compliance; Patient Engagement; Financial Stewardship; Quality and Safety; Workforce Development; Workflow Optimization; and Technology Innovation. Phase II consisted of a structured scoping review mapping empirical evidence to these domains. A PubMed search identified 4,102 records, and structured citation tracking added seven additional studies (4,109 screened). Following staged screening using predefined reproducible criteria with excerpt-level validation, 215 empirical studies (2020-2025) were retained to inform operationalization of 20 core key performance indicators (two per domain). Phase III assessed implementation perceptions among 25 healthcare leaders using validated implementation outcome measures.² Acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility were rated highly (means 4.72-4.88/5), with 99.6% of responses exceeding a viability threshold and strong internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.91). The LAI offers a structured, transparent framework for assessing preparedness for language-concordant care. Further validation is needed to evaluate real-world implementation performance and associations with patient-level outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":51476,"journal":{"name":"Population Health Metrics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147724598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Clues to the origin of rising midlife mortality: associations between recent mortality outcomes and county-level economic, social, and employment changes over multiple time periods.","authors":"Emily B Zimmerman, Roy T Sabo, Salem Rustem, Steven H Woolf","doi":"10.1186/s12963-025-00450-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12963-025-00450-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>All-cause midlife mortality rates have been increasing since 2010 in the United States. Using data from 1970 to 2010, this study investigates the association between county-level changes in economic, social, and employment sectors and changes in midlife mortality rates the occurred between 2010 and 2018. The study employs a novel approach to analyze temporal trends.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>County-level mortality data for 2009-2019 were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), while decennial data for 19 indicators-covering socioeconomic conditions, social factors, and employment sectors-were obtained from IPUMS NHGIS time series tables and the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, Economic Profile by County. Data were examined for 3,069 (97.6%) of the 3,143 U.S. counties and county equivalents. Absolute changes in county characteristics were measured over ten possible comparison periods: single decades, two decades, three decades, and four decades. LASSO regression was used to identify significant predictors and assess their impact over multiple time periods.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>While changes in some county characteristics (e.g., households headed by single mothers, employment in certain sectors, college education, and labor force participation), tend to be associated with higher or lower mortality risk; in many cases the strength and direction of observed associations differed depending on time period, place, and race. These results reveal the importance of historical and contextual factors in understanding mortality trends and highlight the complex interplay between social determinants and health outcomes.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study provides insights into the drivers of midlife mortality and a nuanced look at the temporal dynamics and geographic variations in mortality trends. By identifying critical time periods and specific predictors associated with mortality changes, the study informs policy and public health efforts aimed at reducing mortality disparities and improving population health outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":51476,"journal":{"name":"Population Health Metrics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147700776","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Can a public health awareness campaign effectively address loneliness on a population level?","authors":"Michelle H Lim, Ha-Linh Quach, Ben J Smith","doi":"10.1186/s12963-026-00474-5","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12963-026-00474-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Loneliness has been recognised as a major global public health priority, given its strong associations with increased mortality and morbidity with physical and mental health disorders. Most solutions and strategies aimed at addressing loneliness have focused on individual-level interventions, with relatively limited attention to upstream, population-wide strategies such as public health awareness campaigns. This raises a critical question for public health: can awareness campaigns meaningfully address loneliness at a population level?</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>This commentary examines the potential role of public health awareness campaigns in addressing loneliness, with a particular focus on stigma reduction, collective meaning-making, and social norms. Loneliness is a subjective, multifactorial experience that occurs across the life course and is shaped by diverse social, cultural, and structural factors. Population-wide campaigns therefore face unique challenges, including the risk of oversimplification, pathologisation, and reinforcing individual responsibility for what is often a socially produced experience. Drawing on evidence from population surveys, we highlight the prevalence of stigma surrounding loneliness, including negative stereotypes, reluctance to disclose loneliness, and concealment of lived experiences. We argue that awareness campaigns must move beyond information provision towards fostering empathy, normalising loneliness as a universal human signal, and promoting shared responsibility for healthy meaningful social connection.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>While public health awareness campaigns alone cannot eliminate loneliness, they can play a critical role in reshaping societal understandings, reducing stigma, and creating a more supportive cultural environment for social connection. When theory-informed, co-designed, and rigorously evaluated, such campaigns can contribute meaningfully to population-level strategies to address loneliness.</p>","PeriodicalId":51476,"journal":{"name":"Population Health Metrics","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13063485/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147647496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Examining morbidity and mortality trajectory profiles of hypertension, diabetes and dementia across healthcare systems: an analysis of Catalan and German administrative medical data for the years 2010 to 2019.","authors":"Anna-Victoria Holtz, Jordi Gumà, Iñaki Permanyer, Gabriele Doblhammer","doi":"10.1186/s12963-026-00473-6","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s12963-026-00473-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Hypertension, diabetes and dementia are prevalent morbidities in ageing populations and share complex relationships as risk factors and comorbidities. Understanding their temporal order is essential to understand health inequalities. Routinely collected medical data offers potential for cross-population comparisons, yet their feasibility for examining morbidity and mortality trajectories across healthcare systems remains underexplored.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We analyzed administrative medical data from a cohort of more than 1.5 million Catalans and a cohort of 250,000 Germans aged 50 years and above. Data from both cohorts covered the years 2005 to 2019. Efforts were made to harmonize the data from the two healthcare systems. Prevalence was estimated for hypertension, diabetes and dementia. Further analyses focused on individuals born between 1930 and 1954 with at least one of the three morbidities between 2010 and 2019. Morbidity and mortality trajectory profiles were identified using sequence and cluster analysis for large datasets, resulting in 11 distinct profiles per population. Birth cohort and sex-specific profile characteristics were evaluated by multinomial logistic regression.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Age-standardized prevalence of the three morbidities was lower for Catalans (hypertension: 22.4%, CI [22.2-22.5%], diabetes: 8.1% [8.0-8.2%], dementia: 2.9% [2.8-2.9%]) compared to Germans (hypertension: 69.4% [69.0-69.8%]; diabetes: 29.4% [29.2-29.7%], dementia: 8.2% [8.1-8.4%]) at age 55 years and above in 2010. Prevalence differences may largely reflect differences in diagnostic recording and data-generation practices. Among 174,798 Catalans and 121,547 Germans born between 1930 and 1954 with at least one of the three morbidities, Catalans were more likely to be initially free from any of the three morbidities, whereas Germans were more likely to begin with hypertension and experienced a higher proportion of morbidity combinations. Profiles within each population showed differences based on birth cohort and sex.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Profound differences in prevalence as well as in morbidity and mortality trajectories existed between Catalonia and Germany between 2010 and 2019, reflecting more favorable health outcomes in Catalonia. Although administrative medical data yield meaningful insights for each population, comparing results across populations demands careful attention to variations in healthcare systems. To fully realize the potential of a European health data space, efforts are required to further harmonize data.</p>","PeriodicalId":51476,"journal":{"name":"Population Health Metrics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13064399/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147576218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}