The Incidence of Rheumatic Fever in Metropolitan Nashville, 1963-65

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Incidence of acute rheumatic fever in the world: a systematic review of population-based studies

“…As expected, studies using active surveillance methods exhibited relatively higher incidence rates, which ranged from 8 to 51/100 000 (median 22; interquartile range 10–23/100 000), compared with those employing passive surveillance with lower incidence rates of 5–35/100 000 (median 16; interquartile range 5–18/100 000). Crude incidence rates and age-adjusted rates derived from studies from the USA,12 Chile,13 Martinique and Gouadaloupe,14 and Sweden16 showed a low ARF incidence of ⩽10/100 000 per year; while those from Eastern Europe,15 Middle East,17 – 19 Asia,20 and Australasia21 had a higher incidence >10/100 000 per year. Six of the 10 included studies assessed the incidence of ARF in the first three decades of life,16 – 182021 and the remainder included all age groups 12 – 14 19.…”

“…Crude incidence rates and age-adjusted rates derived from studies from the USA,12 Chile,13 Martinique and Gouadaloupe,14 and Sweden16 showed a low ARF incidence of ⩽10/100 000 per year; while those from Eastern Europe,15 Middle East,17 – 19 Asia,20 and Australasia21 had a higher incidence >10/100 000 per year. Six of the 10 included studies assessed the incidence of ARF in the first three decades of life,16 – 182021 and the remainder included all age groups 12 – 14 19. In two studies, the incidence per year of age could be obtained,15 16 and in one study the childhood and adult incidence measures could be analysed separately 15.…”

“…These studies had been conducted in 10 countries: the Americas (USA,12 Chile,13 and Martinique and Gouadaloupe14); Europe (Czechoslovakia,15 and Sweden16); the Middle East (Kuwait,17 18 and Iran19); Asia (India20); and Australasia (New Zealand21), and were published between 1967 and 1996. The study duration ranged from 3 to 12 years, with a mean (SD) of 6 (3.6) years.…”

“…In total, five studies used active case detection for the assessment of the incidence of ARF,12 14 18 20 21 with health education of health professionals being the method most commonly used to promote the identification of ARF cases 12 14 21. The remaining five studies used passive case detection,13 15 – 17 19both European studies falling within this group 15 16…”

“…In the French Caribbean Islands study, only the incidence over the past 10 years of the 11-year study was taken into consideration because of the very high initial reporting rate following introduction of the active surveillance programme 14. The second Kuwaiti study yielded by far the highest raw number of incident cases of any other included study (ie, between 79 and 114 new cases of first attack ARF per year of study)18; despite it having a population size similar to three studies conducted in Czechoslovakia,15 the Caribbean14 and the USA,12 and considerably lower than Chile 13. The Indian study showed by far the highest overall mean annual incidence rate of 51/100 000 20…”