Dawit Zemedikun

University of Western Australia | UWA · School of Population and Global Health

Up-to-date estimates of stroke burden and attributable risks and their trends at global, regional, and national levels are essential for evidence-based health care, prevention, and resource allocation planning. We aimed to provide such estimates for the period 1990–2021. We estimated incidence, prevalence, death, and disability-adjusted life-year (...

Background Since 2000, the definition of myocardial infarction (MI) has evolved with reliance on cardiac troponin (cTn) tests. The implications of this change on trends of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) subtypes obtained from routinely collected hospital morbidity data are unclear. Using person-linked hospitalisation data, we compared International...

Background: Up-to-date estimates of stroke burden and attributable risks and their trends at global, regional, and national levels are essential for evidence-based health care, prevention, and resource allocation planning. We aimed to provide such estimates for the period 1990–2021. Methods: We estimated incidence, prevalence, death, and disabilit...

Background Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic rheumatological condition which causes inflammation of both the joint lining and extra-articular sites. It affects around 1% of the UK population and, if not properly treated, can lead joint damage, disability, and significant socioeconomic burden. The risk of long-term damage is reduced if treatmen...

Background Neck pain is a highly prevalent condition that leads to considerable pain, disability, and economic cost. We present the most current estimates of neck pain prevalence and years lived with disability (YLDs) from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) by age, sex, and location, with forecasted prevalence to...

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38092509/#full-view-affiliation-41

The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) is a multinational collaborative research study with >10,000 collaborators around the world. GBD generates a time series of summary measures of health, including prevalence, cause-specific mortality (CSMR), years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disabi...

Background The economic impact of managing long COVID in primary care is unknown. We estimated the costs of primary care consultations associated with long COVID and explored the relationship between risk factors and costs. Methods Data were obtained on non-hospitalised adults from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum primary care databas...

Objective Incremental healthcare costs attributed to back pain, and characterisation by patient and clinical factors have rarely been documented. This study aimed to assess annual healthcare resource utilisation and costs associated with back pain in primary care. Methods Using the IQVIA Medical Research Data (IMRD), patients with back pain were i...

Introduction Researchers apply varying definitions when measuring stroke incidence using administrative data. We aimed to investigate the sensitivity of incidence estimates to varying definitions of stroke and lookback periods, and to provide updated incidence rates and trends for Western Australia (WA). Methods We used linked state-wide hospital a...

Background The causes for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) are diverse and the incidence trends of IMIDs from specific causes are rarely studied. The study aims to investigate the pattern and trend of IMIDs from 1990 to 2019. Methods We collected detailed information on six major causes of IMIDs, including asthma, inflammatory bowel di...

Background The causes for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) are diverse and the incidence trends of IMIDs from specific causes are rarely studied. The study aims to investigate the pattern and trend of IMIDs from 1990 to 2019. Methods We collected detailed information on six major causes of IMIDs, including asthma, inflammatory bowel d...

Background The economic impact of managing long COVID in primary care is unknown. We estimated the costs of primary care consultations associated with long COVID and explored the relationship between risk factors and costs. Methods Data were obtained on non-hospitalised adults from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum primary care databas...

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Foundation. Main funding source(s): Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. Background/aims Accurate monitoring of trends in acute coronary syndromes (ACS) provides important information on the impacts of primary and secondary prevention. Use of cardiac troponin (cTn) assays with increasing sensit...

Background: Over 2 million people in the UK self-reported long COVID (symptoms continuing >12 weeks after the first COVID-19 infection) as of December 2022. Long COVID can lead to significant patient burden; however, the economic impact of managing long COVID in primary care is unknown. Objectives: To assess incremental costs of primary care consul...

First-degree relatives (FDRs) of people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are increasingly recruited to prediction and prevention studies. Access to FDRs is usually via their proband with RA. Quantitative data on predictors of family risk communication are lacking. RA patients completed a questionnaire assessing likelihood of communicating RA risk inf...

Objectives To define variables associated with perceived risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in first-degree relatives (FDRs) of patients with RA. Methods Patients with RA and their FDRs were invited to complete cross-sectional surveys. FDR and index patient responses were linked. FDRs’ perceived absolute risk, comparative risk, experient...

Background The prevalence of some immune-mediated diseases (IMDs) shows distinct differences between populations of different ethnicities. The aim of this study was to determine if the age at diagnosis of common IMDs also differed between different ethnic groups in the UK, suggestive of distinct influences of ethnicity on disease pathogenesis. Met...

Background Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common chronic condition but its association with other chronic conditions and mortality is largely unknown. This study aimed to use latent class analysis (LCA) of 30 comorbidities in patients with OA and matched controls without OA to identify clusters of comorbidities and examine the associations between the cl...

Background Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) is small vessel vasculitis with heterogeneous clinical presentation. In the present population-based cohort study, we classified patients with GPA based on clinical features at presentation using an unsupervised clustering approach and compared their mortality, infections and frequency of comorbidit...

Introduction The impact of HIV infection on the aging process is disputed and largely unknown. We aimed to identify whether people living with HIV experience premature, accelerated, and/or accentuated aging by investigating the development of four age‐related non‐communicable diseases in people living with versus without HIV. Methods This populati...

Background Patients with active inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and mental illnesses experience worse IBD outcomes. Aim To describe the incidence of mental illnesses, including deliberate self‐harm, in IBD patients. Methods A population‐based retrospective cohort study using IQVIA medical research data of a primary care database covering the who...

Background Risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is 3-5 times higher in first-degree relatives (FDRs). Efforts are increasing to develop preventive interventions for this at risk group. Risk perception is a key predictor of health behaviours, including FDRs’ interest in predictive testing ¹ and preventive intervention for RA. Effective risk communicati...

Aims Several observational studies have examined the potential protective effect of angiotensin‐converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE‐I) use on the risk of age‐related macular degeneration (AMD) and have reported contradictory results owing to confounding and time‐related biases. We aimed to assess the risk of AMD in a base cohort of patients aged 40 ye...

Introduction: Individuals with COVID-19 frequently experience symptoms and impaired quality of life beyond 4-12 weeks, commonly referred to as Long COVID. Whether Long COVID is one or several distinct syndromes is unknown. Establishing the evidence base for appropriate therapies is needed. We aim to evaluate the symptom burden and underlying patho...

Several observational studies have examined the potential protective effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE-I) use on the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and have reported contradictory results owing to confounding and time-related biases. We aimed to assess the risk of AMD in a base cohort of patients aged 40 and abo...

Introduction Individuals with COVID-19 frequently experience symptoms and impaired quality of life beyond 4-12 weeks, commonly referred to as Long COVID. Whether Long COVID is one or several distinct syndromes is unknown. Establishing the evidence base for appropriate therapies is needed. We aim to evaluate the symptom burden and underlying pathoph...

Objectives To identify the association between periodontal diseases (gingivitis and periodontitis) and chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, cardiometabolic disease, autoimmune disease and mental ill health. Design Retrospective cohort. Setting IQVIA Medical Research Data-UK between 1 January 1995 and 1 January 2019. Participants 64...

Objectives There is increasing interest in prediction and prevention of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It is important to understand the views of those at risk to inform the development of effective approaches. First-degree relatives (FDRs) of RA patients are at increased risk of RA. This study assessed predictors of their interest in predictive testin...

Background Back pain is a common and costly health problem worldwide. There is yet a lack of consistent methodologies to estimate the economic burden of back pain to society. Objective To systematically evaluate the methodologies used in the published cost of illness (COI) literature for estimating the direct and indirect costs attributed to back...

Objective To identify whether active use of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) increases susceptibility to developing suspected or confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) compared to the use of other common analgesics. Methods We performed a propensity score–matched cohort study with active comparators, using a large UK primary car...

Objective: To describe the prevalence and incidence of endometriosis and to estimate the risk of cardiovascular outcomes in women with endometriosis. Design: Population-based cohort study using The Health Improvement Network database. Setting: UK primary care POPULATION: Women aged 16-50 years were followed through from 1995 to 2018 METHODS: A...

Introduction Renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors have been postulated to influence susceptibility to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). This study investigated whether there is an association between their prescription and the incidence of COVID-19 and all-cause mortality. Methods We conducted a propensity-score ma...

Objective: To compare the incident risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and to explore the role of glycaemic control and associated therapeutic use on the onset of RA. Methods: This study was a retrospective cohort study using patients derived from the IQVIA medical research database (IMRD-UK) betwe...

Objective: Diabetes has emerged as an important risk factor for mortality from COVID-19. Metformin, the most commonly prescribed glucose-lowering agent, has been proposed to influence susceptibility to and outcomes of COVID-19 via multiple mechanisms. We investigated whether, in patients with diabetes, metformin is associated with susceptibility t...

Introduction Renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors have been postulated to influence susceptibility to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). This study investigated whether there is an association between their prescription and the incidence of COVID-19 and all-cause mortality. Methods We conducted a propensity-score mat...

Introduction A significant proportion of patients with Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) have hypertension and are treated with renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors, namely angiotensin-converting enzyme I inhibitors (ACE inhibitors) or angiotensin II type-1 receptor blockers (ARBs). These medications have been postulated to influence susceptib...

Background: Childhood maltreatment is a global public health issue linked to a vast mortality and morbidity burden. This study builds on current literature to explore the risk of developing central sensitivity syndromes (CSS) (consisting of somatic and visceral pain syndromes) subsequent to childhood maltreatment exposure. Methods: A retrospective...

Objectives The objective of this study is to use latent class analysis of up to 20 comorbidities in patients with a diagnosis of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) to identify clusters of comorbidities and to examine the associations between these clusters and mortality. Methods Longitudinal analysis of electronic health records in the health improveme...

Background The association between allergic diseases (ADs) and autoimmune disorders (AIDs) is not well established. Objective To determine incidence rates of AIDs in allergic rhinitis/conjunctivitis (ARC), atopic eczema (AE) and asthma, and investigate for co-occurring patterns. Methods Design : Retrospective cohort study (1990–2018) employing “T...

Using back pain as a case study, this research evaluated alternative econometric methods used in modelling healthcare cost data. Regression analysis methods applied included OLS, log-transformed OLS, generalised linear models (GLMs), a flexible extended estimating equations (EEE) model, and a quantile regression (QR) approach. How well the alternat...

Objective: To assess the prevalence, disease clusters, and patterns of multimorbidity using a novel 2-stage approach in middle-aged and older adults from the United Kingdom. Patients and methods: Data on 36 chronic conditions from 502,643 participants aged 40 to 69 years with baseline measurements between March 13, 2006, and October 1, 2010, fro...

This review aimed to explore the methodologies used for estimating the direct and indirect costs attributed to back pain in developed countries. This is the first methodological systematic review assessing the costs of back pain. Despite differences in methodology, the economic burden of back pain is significant. Development of guideline and standa...

This review aims to explore the methodologies used for estimating the direct and indirect costs attributed to back pain in developed countries. Six databases were searched to uncover studies about the direct and indirect costs of back pain published in English up to November 2016. We screened 1067 abstracts and subsequently reviewed 53 full-text st...

With an ageing population, multimorbidity has become one of the main challenges in the recent years for patients and the health care systems worldwide. Hence, it is crucial to characterise the problem in order to devise effective strategies to manage multimorbidity and move towards integrated healthcare rather than single-disease focus. Therefore,...