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Dr Christophe de Jaeger (Longevity and geriatrics)
In Denmark, scientists have established a veritable “Danish Atlas of Mortality by Disease”, to enable caregivers to better inform and take care of their patients. A work of unprecedented magnitude.
Faced with disease, life expectancy is medical data that often lacks precision: statistics are most often established from a reference age at which an illness would appear… An age which in reality varies from one person to another. So it’s hard to get a proper assessment…
A study published on June 16 in Denmark in the journal Plos Medicine, could be a game changer. A team of researchers from the University of Aarhus in Denmark has decided to apply an existing statistical model to estimate the impact of diseases on nearly 7.4 million Danes for 18 years, from 2000 to 2018.
An informative database of 1803 diseases compiled over 18 years
The scientists collected as much information as possible in order to reinforce the existing statistical models with real data. In its final edition, the study took into account 1,803 common diseases, which affect “lungs, circulatory system, intestine, urinary tract, nervous system and brain”.
Thanks to this considerable and meticulous follow-up of nearly two decades, during which 14% of the participants died, the researchers were able to take stock of the average age of diagnosis, the mortality rate, the life expectancy and the number years lost on average for each pathology.
A work materialized today by an online tool, “a Danish Disease Mortality Atlas” to which doctors can refer. On the other hand, if this data turns out to be an extremely detailed resource, it is not known to what extent it can be applied outside of Denmark.
Inform practitioners, educate patients
Beyond a more precise medical knowledge of the pathologies, this new updated database will allow, according to the Danish team, a better care of the patients: an improvement of the communication of the medical team to the patient and why not setting up additional follow-up consultations, if necessary.
Consulted on the subject, Dr. Christophe De Jaeger, geriatrician and researcher in physiology recognizes two advances in this Danish study: “This considerable work by Danish researchers is very interesting because it makes it possible to calculate the relative risk of each pathology, but also to modify people’s behavior. Thanks to this “Atlas”, practitioners have a more realistic vision of their patient’s residual life expectancy, which calls for more interventionist behavior on their part. Patients, for their part, can talk about life expectancy in concrete terms with their doctor, better understand that if they accumulate pathologies, it is all the more years lost, but that conversely, s ‘they do what is necessary not to worsen their state of health, they will also be able to increase this life expectancy’.