For caregivers, it is sometimes difficult to estimate the life expectancy of a sick person.
Most forecasts are based on calculations assuming that the disease occurs at a specific age, which is not always the case.
To overcome this lack of knowledge of many pathologies and their consequences on life expectancy, a team of Danish researchers spent many years establishing new estimates.
Their study was published this Thursday in the journal
PLOS Medicine
, reports
New Scientist
relayed by
Slate
.
Public data
Scientists studied the health status of almost 7.4 million Danes for 18 years to strengthen existing statistical models with real data.
A total of 1,803 diseases affecting “the lungs, circulatory system, intestine, urinary tract, nervous system and brain” were taken into account.
Thanks to this very long follow-up, during which 14% of the participants died, the researchers established the average age of diagnosis, the mortality rate, the average age of death and the number of years lost on average for each pathology. .
All of this data has been compiled into an online tool: “The Danish Disease Mortality Atlas”.
All these new estimates could help caregivers to better inform and communicate with their patients, at least in Denmark (the data is not valid in other countries).
“They can see what the mortality rates of these patients look like at that age,” says Oleguer Plana-Ripoll, lead author of the study.
“And find out if they need to arrange additional follow-up consultations with these people.
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