Illinois Morbidity and Mortality Bulletin – Third Issue

SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today released the third issue of its Illinois Morbidity and Mortality Bulletin (IMMB).  The IMMB is IDPH’s primary publication for scientific articles of interest to public health communities and professionals in Illinois.  Articles in the IMMB are prepared by IDPH staff from various programs and provide analysis, description, interpretation, and discussion of data. 
 
 “It is not only important to collect health data, but to also look at how it’s being collected and what it can tell us,” said IDPH Director Nirav D. Shah, M.D., J.D.  “Analyzing data can help inform us how to live longer, healthier lives.” 
 
This bulletin features two articles from staff in IDPH’s Office of Policy, Planning, and Statistics.
 
The first article, from Jennifer Wood, BA; Melinda Lehnherr, RN; Larry Hebert; Kyle Garner, MPH; Terry Dolecek, PhD; and Tiefu Shen, MD, PhD, evaluates the methods for projecting the number of new cancer cases in Illinois.  Comparisons are made between the Illinois State Cancer Registry projection method and the American Cancer Society projection method, and the answer may surprise you.
 
The second article, from Mohammed Shahidullah, PhD, MPH and Nelson Agbodo, MS, MPH with the Health Facilities and Services Review Board, looks at estimating disability-free life expectancies for Illinois residents.  While many people are living longer, what is their quality of life like for those additional years?
 
The IMMB target audience is public health practitioners, researchers, physicians, nurses, epidemiologists, educators, staff at local health departments, and policy makers.
 
The IMMB can be found at http://dph.illinois.gov/sites/default/files/publications/opps-immb-vol2-issue1-final-051016.pdf.  

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