Statistics Division Research Articles

A hybrid self-supervised model predicting life satisfaction in South Korea

ObjectiveLife satisfaction pertains to an individual’s subjective evaluation of their life quality, grounded in their personal criteria. It stands as a crucial cognitive aspect of subjective wellbeing, offering a reliable gauge of a person’s comprehensive wellbeing status. In this research, our objective is to develop a hybrid self-supervised model tailored for predicting individuals’ life satisfaction in South Korea.MethodsWe employed the Busan Metropolitan City Social Survey Data in 2021, a comprehensive dataset compiled by the Big Data Statistics Division of Busan Metropolitan City. After preprocessing, our analysis focused on a total of 32,390 individuals with 51 variables. We developed the self-supervised pre-training TabNet model as a key component of this study. In addition, we integrated the proposed model with the Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanation (LIME) technique to enhance the ease and intuitiveness of interpreting local model behavior.ResultsThe performance of our advanced model surpassed conventional tree-based ML models, registering an AUC of 0.7778 for the training set and 0.7757 for the test set. Furthermore, our integrated model simplifies and clarifies the interpretation of local model actions, effectively navigating past the intricate nuances of TabNet’s standard explanatory mechanisms.ConclusionOur proposed model offers a transparent understanding of AI decisions, making it a valuable tool for professionals in the social sciences and psychology, even if they lack expertise in data analytics.

GROUPING REGENCIES/CITIES IN WEST JAVA PROVINCE BASED ON PEOPLE’S WELFARE INDICATORS USING BIPLOT AND CLUSTERING

The level of people's welfare in West Java Province still requires improvement in each indicator. People's welfare indicators include poverty, employment, education, housing, consumption patterns, health, and population. The level of people's welfare can be known by reviewing all dimensions based on linear relationships between regencies/cities to produce information on indicators that still need improvement. These efforts can assist the West Java Provincial Government determine regional policies and programs for equitable distribution and improve people's welfare in all regencies/cities. The data used in this study are secondary data derived from the Website of the BPS of West Java Province 2023, West Java Open Data Province 2023, and Diskominfo Statistics Division (Jabar Digital Service). The grouping of regencies/cities was done using Principal Component Analysis based on Singular Value Decomposition biplot analysis, and it continued with Ward's Method Clustering based on Euclidean distance calculation. The analysis results formed four groups with different people's welfare indicators characteristics. The group that needs top priority in improvement is group 2 because it has a low level of people's welfare. Cluster 1 contains regencies/cities with high people's welfare characteristics in the housing and employment indicators. Cluster 3 includes regencies/municipalities with high people's welfare characteristics in the consumption pattern level, poverty, employment, and health indicators. Cluster 4 contains cities with high people's welfare characteristics in education and population indicators.

FERTILITY TRANSITION IN INDIA: AN ANALYSIS

Every government's first responsibility is to ensure the provision of public health services, and as a result, the government has taken action to maintain public health by opening health centres, hospitals, and mobile hospitals as well as by planning large-scale health awareness campaigns. In this essay, the patterns and trends in India's infant and child mortality rates and fertility rate from 1951 to 2023 are examined. the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, Vital Statistics Division, books, journals, RBI bulletins, theses, and websites; and the Directorate of Economics and Statistics. According to the data, India had a death rate of 27.584 per 1000 people in 1951, a 2.050 percent decrease from 1950. India currently has a death rate of 7.416 per 1000 people in 2023, a 0.490 percent decrease from 2022. Similar to this, India had a 1951 infant mortality rate of 186.737 deaths per 1000 live births, a 1.530 percent decrease from 1950. India's infant mortality rate in 2023 is projected to be 26.619 deaths per 1000 live births, a 3.89 percent decrease from 2022. 5.906 babies per woman are delivered in India in 1951, a 0.020 percent decrease from 1950. In India, there will be 2.139 births per woman in 2023, a 0.93 percent decrease from 2022. India's fertility rate fell by 0.92 percent from 2021 to 2022, to 2.159 births per woman. According to the study, between 1950 and 2023, India's mortality and infant mortality rates rose at compound annual growth rates of 6.44 percent and 7.25 percent, respectively, as did its fertility rate. The trend coefficients, which are positive and significant at a 5 percent level, suggest that India's death rate, infant mortality rate, and fertility rate have all increased between 1950 and 2023. The trend coefficient for India's death rate, infant mortality rate, and fertility rate from 1950 to 2023 is 0.077, whereas it is 0.072 for the number of fertility rates. In India, there has been a general decline in death rates throughout time.

Traditional japanese diet score and the sustainable development goals by a global comparative ecological study

BackgroundReducing the environmental impact of the food supply is important for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) worldwide. Previously, we developed the Traditional Japanese Diet Score (TJDS) and reported in a global ecological study that the Japanese diet is associated with reducing obesity and extending healthy life expectancy etc. We then examined the relationship between the TJDS and environmental indicators.MethodsThe average food (g/day/capita) and energy supplies (kcal/day/capita) by country were obtained from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Statistics Division database. The TJDS was calculated from eight food groups (beneficial food components in the Japanese diet: rice, fish, soybeans, vegetables, and eggs; food components that are relatively unused in the traditional Japanese diet: wheat, milk, and red meat) by country using tertiles, and calculated the total score from − 8 to 8, with higher scores meaning greater adherence to the TJDS. We used Land Use (m2), Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 2007/2013 (kg CO2eq), Acidifying emissions (g SO2eq), Eutrophying emissions (g PO43− eq), Freshwater (L), and water use (L) per food weight by Poore et al. as the environmental indicators and multiplied these indicators by each country’s average food supply. We evaluated the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between the TJDS and environmental indicators from 2010 to 2020. This study included 151 countries with populations ≥ 1 million.ResultsLand use (β ± standard error; -0.623 ± 0.161, p < 0.001), GHG 2007 (-0.149 ± 0.057, p < 0.05), GHG 2013 (-0.183 ± 0.066, p < 0.01), Acidifying (-1.111 ± 0.369, p < 0.01), and Water use (-405.903 ± 101.416, p < 0.001) were negatively associated with TJDS, and Freshwater (45.116 ± 7.866, p < 0.001) was positively associated with TJDS after controlling for energy supply and latitude in 2010. In the longitudinal analysis, Land Use (β ± standard error; -0.116 ± 0.027, p < 0.001), GHG 2007 (-0.040 ± 0.010, p < 0.001), GHG 2013 (-0.048 ± 0.011, p < 0.001), Acidifying (-0.280 ± 0.064, p < 0.001), Eutrophying (-0.132 ± 0.062, p < 0.05), and Water use (-118.246 ± 22.826, p < 0.001) were negatively associated with TJDS after controlling for confounders.ConclusionsThis ecological study suggests that the traditional Japanese dietary pattern might improve SDGs except Fresh water.

A Study of Global Trade War and Its Impact on Indian Economy

A Study of Global Trade War and Its Impact on Indian Economy

How Himalayan communities are changing cultivation practices in the context of climate change

Climate change can have significant impacts on crop yields and food security. This study assessed the linkages between climate change and crop yields to obtain a better understanding on the drivers of food security. The study was conducted in Pasagaun village of Lamjung District in Nepal, where household surveys and focus group discussions (FGDs) were used to collect data including crop cultivation, irrigation facilities, and adaptation strategies. Moreover, climate data (temperature and precipitation) from 1992 to 2020 were collected from the Khudi Bazar meteorological station and crop yield data were obtained from the Agri-Business Promotion and Statistics Division. Trend analysis of temperature and precipitation was conducted using Mann-Kendall trend test and Sen's Slope method, and the results showed an increase in the average temperature of approximately 0.02 ​°C/a and a decrease in the annual precipitation of 9.84 mm/a. The cultivation of traditional varieties of rice and foxtail millet (Kaguno) has vanished. Although, there was no significant impact of the maximum temperature on the yield of rice and maize, the regression analysis revealed that there are negative relationships between rice yield and annual minimum temperature (r ​= ​−0.44), between millet yield and annual precipitation (r ​= ​−0.30), and between maize yield and annual minimum temperature (r ​= ​−0.31) as well as positive relationship between rice yield and annual precipitation (r ​= ​0.16). Moreover, average rice yield and millet yield have decreased by 27.0% and 57.0% in 2000–2020, respectively. Despite other reasons for the decrease in crop yield such as the lack of irrigation facilities, out-migration of farmer, and increased pest infestation, respondents have adopted adaptation strategies (for example, shifts in cultivation time and changes in crop types) to minimize the impacts of climate change. More investigation and community-based farming education are needed to understand and alleviate the harmful impacts of climate change on crop yield, as effective adaptation coping strategies are still insufficient. This study provides insights into the adaptation strategies that are necessary to keep food security in the face of climate change.

Characteristics of specialists treating hypothyroid patients: the "THESIS" collaborative.

Thyroid specialists influence how hypothyroid patients are treated, including patients managed in primary care. Given that physician characteristics influence patient care, this study aimed to explore thyroid specialist profiles and associations with geo-economic factors. Thyroid specialists from 28 countries were invited to respond to a questionnaire, Treatment of Hypothyroidism in Europe by Specialists: an International Survey (THESIS). Geographic regions were defined according to the United Nations Statistics Division. The national economic status was estimated using World Bank data on the gross national income per capita (GNI per capita). 5,695 valid responses were received (response rate 33·0%). The mean age was 49 years, and 65·0% were female. The proportion of female respondents was lowest in Northern (45·6%) and highest in Eastern Europe (77·2%) (p <0·001). Respondent work volume, university affiliation and private practice differed significantly between countries (p<0·001). Age and GNI per capita were correlated inversely with the proportion of female respondents (p<0·01). GNI per capita was inversely related to the proportion of respondents working exclusively in private practice (p<0·011) and the proportion of respondents who treated >100 patients annually (p<0·01). THESIS has demonstrated differences in characteristics of thyroid specialists at national and regional levels, strongly associated with GNI per capita. Hypothyroid patients in middle-income countries are more likely to encounter female thyroid specialists working in private practice, with a high workload, compared to high-income countries. Whether these differences influence the quality of care and patient satisfaction is unknown, but merits further study.

First Report of Anthracnose on Dioscorea opposita Caused by Colletotrichum siamense in Guangdong province in China.

Yam is the world's fourth most important tuber crop, after cassava, potato, and sweet potato in the world, the cultivation area of yam from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Statistics Division database (FAOSTAT) is about 8,831,037 ha in 2020. Chinese yam (Dioscorea opposita Thunb.) is an economically important root crop throughout China due to its high economic and medicinal value. South China including Guangdong and Guangxi provinces is one of the important production districts of Chinese yam with economic value. A disease affecting the leaves was observed on yam leaves in August 2021 with an incidence of 20 to 90% in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. Symptoms start as pinpoint lesions on yam leaves which enlarged to oval spots and large irregular spots. The spots were brown and surrounded by a chlorotic halo with sunken cavities, which are typical symptoms of anthracnose. To identify the causal agent, 9 symptomatic leaves from 3 different districts were collected in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. Leaf samples were disinfested with 1% NaOCl for 3 min, and cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at 28 °C for 3 days week. 9 single-spore isolates were recovered from each PDA medium. Colonies on PDA were grayish white with bright orange conidial spore masses. Fungal mycelia were hyaline, septate, and branched. Conidia were born on a long conidiogenous cell, straight, hyaline and cylindrical with rounded ends, 5.3 to 6.8×15.2 to 21.3μm (n = 50). Appressoria were dark, smooth-walled, oval in shape. The isolates were morphologically identified as Colletotrichum sp. (Weir et al. 2012). 3 strains were used for the pathogenicity test, 5 plants at creeping stage were inoculated with each isolate separately and 3-5 leaves of each plant were inoculated. Fresh wounds were made with a sterile needle on the healthy surface of yam leaves and each leaf was covered with a piece of cotton drenched with conidial suspension (106 conidia/mL) from each isolate. Control seedlings were inoculated identically except sterile water was used. Inoculated plants were placed in a moisturizing light incubator at 25℃ and 80% humidity under a 12-h light/dark cycle for 7 days and examined daily to monitor disease symptom development. Small round brown spots were observed at the inoculation sites 3 days after the inoculation and eventually became large brown lesions. No symptoms wre observed in the water-inoculated plants. A Colletotrichum sp. strain based on morphology was reisolated from inoculated leaves, fulfilling Koch's postulates. For molecular identification, the direct colony PCR method (Lu et al. 2012) was used to amplify the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of ribosomal DNA, calmodulin (Cal), tubulin (Tub) and Apmat loci of three isolates using primer pairs of ITS4/ITS5, CL1C/CL2C, T1/T2 and AM-F/AM-R (Sharma et al. 2015). A phylogenetic tree derived from a maximum likelihood analysis of a concatenated alignment of ITS, Cal, Tub and ApMAT sequences was created. The accession numbers of the three isolates YamZJCS, YamSXCS and YamYLCS used in this study were OP128056-OP128058 for ITS, OP128059-OP128061 for ApMAT，OP128062-OP128064 for Cal and OP128065-OP128067 for Tub. The sequences of the 3 isolates were aligned with related species of Colletotrichum (Sharma et al. 2015). Analyses based on concatenated data sets of 4 genes showed that the sequences had high levels of identity to that of the C. siamense strains. According to both morphological and sequence analyses, the pathogen was identified as C. siamense. There were reports of anthracnose on yam caused by Colletotrichum sp. in Guangxi (Zhu et al. 2007), Hainan (Lin et al. 2018) and Jiangsu (Han et al. 2020) provinces in China. To our knowledge, this is the first report of anthracnose on D. opposita caused by C. siamense in Guangdong province in China.

Interview with Reimund Mink, about his book ‘Official Statistics – A Plaything of Politics? On the interaction of Politics, Official Statistics, and Ethical Principles’1

Reimund Mink, a former employee from the European Central Bank recently published the book ‘Official Statistics – A Plaything of Politics? On the interaction of Politics, Official Statistics, and Ethical Principles’. The experience from Reimund with government finance statistics in European but also in many non-European countries is a rich source for dedicated reflections and lessons to learn from the roles that official statistics, (can) play in politics. His book informs in great detail on the backgrounds for and details of the role of official statistics and their political use. Ivo Havinga, former Assistant Director Economics Statistics of the United Nations Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, managing partner, and academic, and present senior advisor in statistical information systems for sustainable development, was found willing to interview the author Reimund Mink.

Place of Death for Young Adults With Chronic Illness.

Little is known about where young adults with chronic illness die in the United States and factors associated with place of death. This study aimed to examine place of death and factors associated with place of death for young adults with chronic illness using the most recent national data. Our sample ( N = 405,535) from the National Center for Health Statistics Division of Vital Statistics death certificate data (2003-2018) included young adults (age 18-39 years) who died from chronic conditions common in childhood or young adulthood. Conditions were grouped by underlying pathophysiology (oncological, cardiovascular, neuromuscular, metabolic, hematological/immunological, renal, chromosomal/congenital, gastrointestinal, and respiratory). Place of death was dichotomized into acute care (inpatient, outpatient/emergency room, and dead on arrival) or nonacute care (home, hospice, nursing home/long-term care, other, and unknown). Examined factors were gender, year of death, age, race (White, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaskan Native), cause of death, and city of residence population (100,000 or greater and under 100,000). Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used to examine factors related to place of death. Over half of young adults died in acute care settings. Young adults who were Asian/Pacific Islander or Black or who died from a respiratory or renal cause of death were most likely to die in an acute care setting. Rates of acute care death decreased over the studied years. Many young adults died in an acute care setting. Race and cause of death were the most influential factors associated with place of death. Young adults with an oncological cause of death were less likely to die in an acute care setting than patients with other underlying causes. This may indicate that specific care needs or preferences at the end of life may differ in certain disease populations and may affect place of death. Previous research has shown similar results in other developmental populations; however, given the complex psychosocial concerns that often arise during young adulthood, further research is needed to describe how the young adult status may specifically affect place of death.

Evaluating the Influence of Foreign Exchange Policy Regime on the Construction Sector in Nigeria

In developing economies, foreign exchange policy regime (FEPR) play a critical role in the viability of all sectors of the economy. In Nigeria, the economy is dependent on foreign inputs from contracting services, technology, materials, expatriates, etc. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of FEPR on the performance of the construction sector in Nigeria. To achieve this goal, time series data was extracted from United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) on the construction sector, gross domestic product (GDP) and FEPR for 50 years spanning from 1970 to 2019. The study uses econometric approach including tests of stationarity and co-integration as well as the generalized method of moment (GMM) to model the relationships between the variables. The study reveals that the 1986 FEPR reform had significant and negative effect on the construction sector output in Nigeria. This implies that the performance of the construction sector is affected by the state of the economy and government policy. This study proves that the foreign exchange policy regime does not significantly influence the construction industry during the period of review. It also ascertained that the development of the construction sector depends more on previous construction outputs and only altered due to oil export shock. Hence, this study recommends that sustainable construction development strategies should be implemented to eliminate construction sector challenges and reduce the effect of foreign exchange rate volatility on the construction sector. Finally, monetary and fiscal policies that can engender sustainable growth and development of the construction sector should be implemented.

Quantifying greenhouse gas emissions from wood fuel use by households

Abstract. The combustion of wood fuel for residential use is often not considered to be a source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from households, as the emissions from wood fuel combustion can be offset by the CO2 absorbed by the growth of the forest (as a carbon sink) (IPCC, 2006). However, this only applies to wood that is harvested in a renewable way, i.e. at a rate not exceeding the regrowth rate of the forest from which it was harvested (Drigo et al., 2002). This paper estimates the share of GHG emissions attributable to non-renewable wood fuel harvesting for use in residential food activities, by country and with global coverage. It adds to a growing research base estimating GHG emissions from across the entire agri-food value chain, from the manufacture of farm inputs, through food supply chains, and finally to waste disposal (Tubiello et al., 2021). Country-level information is generated from United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and International Energy Agency (IEA) data on wood fuel use by households. We find that, in 2019, annual emissions from non-renewable wood fuel consumed for household food preparation were about 745×106 t (Mt CO2 eq. yr−1), with an uncertainty ranging from −63 % to +64 %. Overall, global trends were a result of counterbalancing effects: the emission increases were largely fuelled by countries in sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia, and Latin America, whereas significant decreases were seen in countries in eastern Asia and South-East Asia. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has developed and regularly maintains a database covering GHG emissions from the various components of the agri-food sector, including pre- and post-production activities, by country and world regions. The dataset has been developed according to the International Panel on Climate Change guidelines (IPCC, 2006), which avoid overlaps between agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) and energy components. The aforementioned dataset relies mainly on UNSD Energy Statistics data, which are used as activity data for the calculation of the GHG emissions (Tubiello et al., 2022). The information used in this work is available as open data at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7310932 (Flammini et al., 2022a).

The burden of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa and its association with development assistance for health and governance: An exploration of the GBD 2019 study

ABSTRACT Even with a reduced burden of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), differences remain in the rate of change among countries and sub-regions. We used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 to establish the relationship between Development Assistance for Health (DAH) and governance and trends in malaria burden in SSA. The trend was estimated using the Joinpoint regression program and the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation’s DAH database, and World Bank Governance Indicators to analyze the DAH and governance respectively from 2000 to 2017 and used two-way fixed effects to establish their association with the trend in the period. The findings showed decreases in SSA’s age-standardised rates for disability-adjusted life years (ASDR) (−47% (95% uncertainty interval (UI) −69% to −14%)), deaths (−38% (95% UI −65% to −3%)), incidence (−35% (95% UI −44% to −25%)), and prevalence (−34% (95% UI −43% to −24%)). Decreases in ASDR were associated with increases in DAH (β −134.18, standard error (SE) 27.26) and governance scores (β −246.19, SE 39.13). The association between reductions in malaria burden and increases in DAH and in governance scores shows the need for accelerated funding of malaria programs and advocacy for better disease governance in malaria-endemic countries. Abbreviations: APC: Annual percentage change; ASDR: Age-standardised disability-adjusted life-year rate; ASIR: Age-standardised incidence rate; ASIR: Age-standardised incidence rate; ASMR: Age-standardised mortality rate; CSSA: Central sub-Saharan Africa; DAH: Development Assistance for Health; DALYs: Disability-adjusted life years; ESSA: Eastern sub-Saharan Africa; GBD: Global burden of disease; GHDx Global Health Data Exchange; IHME: Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation; SDGs: Sustainable Development Goals; SSA: Sub-Saharan Africa; SSSA: Southern sub-Saharan Africa; UNSD: United Nations Statistics Division; USD: United States dollars; WGI: World Bank Governance Indicators; WHO: World Health Organization; WSSA: Western sub-Saharan Africa

Hospitalization Risk Associated With Emergency Department Reasons for Visit and Patient Age: A Retrospective Evaluation of National Emergency Department Survey Data to Help Identify Potentially Avoidable Emergency Department Visits.

Patients often present to emergency departments (EDs) with concerns that do not require emergency care. Self-triage and other interventions may help some patients decide whether they should be seen in the ED. Symptoms associated with low risk of hospitalization can be identified in national ED data and can inform the design of interventions to reduce avoidable ED visits. We used the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) data from the United States National Health Care Statistics (NHCS) division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The ED datasets from 2011 through 2020 were combined. Primary reasons for ED visit and the binary field for hospital admission from the ED were used to estimate the proportion of ED patients admitted to the hospital for each reason for visit and age category. There were 221,027 surveyed ED visits during the 10-year data collection with 736 different primary reasons for visit and 23,228 hospitalizations. There were 145 million estimated hospitalizations from 1.37 billion estimated ED visits (10.6%). Inclusion criteria for this study were reasons for visit which had at least 30 ED visits in the sample; there were 396 separate reasons for visit which met this criteria. Of these 396 reasons for visit, 97 had admission percentages less than 2% and another 52 had hospital admissions estimated between 2% and 4%. However, there was a significant increase in hospitalizations within many of the ED reasons for visit in older adults. Reasons for visit from national ED data can be ranked by hospitalization risk. Low-risk symptoms may help healthcare institutions identify potentially avoidable ED visits. Healthcare systems can use this information to help manage potentially avoidable ED visits with interventions designed to apply to their patient population and healthcare access.

Evaluation of Different Insecticides Against Lesser Date Moth, Batrachedra amydraula Meyrick, 1916 (Lepidoptera: Batrachedridae) under Field Conditions

Evaluation of Different Insecticides Against Lesser Date Moth, Batrachedra amydraula Meyrick, 1916 (Lepidoptera: Batrachedridae) under Field Conditions

Streamlined approach for assessing embedded consumption of lithium and cobalt in the United States

AbstractIn today's complex global supply chains, time and data intensive analyses are required to understand global flows of mineral commodities from mine to consumer, particularly for mineral commodities in products (electronics, automobiles, etc.) that contain multiple parts with many mineral commodities. National and regional analyses require additional time and data to incorporate international trade flows. However, data limitations and time constraints often prohibit global and national material flow analyses for minor metals. Here we present a methodological approach to circumvent these constraints by utilizing readily available industry‐level global data from the United Nations Statistics Division and national industrial data to estimate total requirements for a mineral commodity. We apply this approach to lithium and cobalt use in the United States for the year 2018 and distinguish between apparent raw material consumption versus inferred embedded consumption of lithium and cobalt materials in all forms. The results show that more than half of the United States’ total requirements for both lithium and cobalt is in parts and products that were manufactured outside the United States. In large part, this is due to limited US manufacturing capability for lithium‐ion battery materials and cells and the United States’ high import reliance for electronics that use those batteries.

Mortality related to pulmonary embolism in the United States before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: an analysis of the CDC Multiple Cause of Death database

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic caused a large number of excess deaths. COVID-19 emerged as a prothrombotic disease often complicated by pulmonary embolism (PE). In light of this, we hypothesized that PE-related mortality rates (stable before the pandemic) would be characterized by an increasing trend following the COVID-19 outbreak. Purpose To investigate the mortality rates associated with PE among deaths with or without COVID-19 during the 2020 pandemic in the United States (US). Methods For this retrospective epidemiological study, we analyzed public medically certified vital registration data (death certificates encompassing underlying and multiple causes of death) from the Mortality Multiple Cause-of-Death database provided by the Division of Vital Statistics of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; US, 2018–20). We investigated the time trends in monthly PE-related crude mortality rates for 2018–2019 and for 2020 (the latter associated vs. not associated with COVID-19), utilizing annual national population totals from the US Census Bureau. Second, we calculated the PE-related proportionate mortality among COVID-19 deaths (overall and limited to autopsy-based diagnosis). We performed subgroup analyses based on age groups, sex and race. Results During 2020, 49,423 deaths in association with PE were reported, vs. 39,450 in 2019 and 38,215 in 2018. The crude PE-related mortality rate without COVID-19 was 13.3 per 100,000 population in 2020 compared to 11.7 in 2018 and 12.0 in 2019 (Figure 1A). The PE-related mortality rate with COVID-19 was 1.6 per 100,000 population in 2020. Among non-COVID-19-related deaths, the crude PE-related mortality rate was higher in women; among COVID-19-related deaths, it was higher in men. PE-related mortality rates were approximately two-fold higher among black (vs. white) general population irrespective of COVID-19 status (Figures 1B and 1C). Among COVID-19 deaths, PE-related deaths corresponded to 1.4% of total; the value rose to 6.0% when an autopsy was performed. This figure was higher in men and its time evolution is depicted in Figure 2A. The proportionate mortality of PE in COVID-19 deaths was higher for younger age groups (15–44 years) compared to non-COVID-19-related deaths (Figure 2B). Conclusion In 2020, an overall 20%-increase in PE-related mortality was reported, not being limited to patients with COVID-19. Our findings could be interpreted in the context of undiagnosed COVID-19 cases, uncounted late sequelae, and possibly sedentary lifestyle and avoidance of healthcare facilities during the pandemic that may have prevented timely diagnosis and treatment of other diseases. Whether vaccination programs had an impact on PE-associated mortality in the year 2021, remains to be determined. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.

Poverty mapping in Latin America: ECLAC experiences on small area estimation

Poverty mapping is a valuable tool for governments and international organizations to identify the geographical areas and population groups that are most deprived or vulnerable. This approach can lead to designing and monitoring development policies more effectively. This article presents the recent experience of the Statistics Division of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in using Small Area Estimation (SAE) methods to combine information from household surveys, censuses and satellite imagery to deliver poverty estimates at the provincial and municipal levels, which could not be attained using the household surveys alone.

A Decade of Inaction in the SADC region? - disaster risk data gaps and inconsistencies on the Sendai Framework Monitor

This paper considered the disaster risk-related data from the primary databases used for official progress reporting on the Sendai Framework Monitor (SFM), and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development - United Nations Statistics Division database. We conducted a comparative study to analyse the available data and track progress on Target E: Indicator E1. Findings show that the SFM had less than 50% of SADC countries reporting on Target E, indicating little progress towards reporting the region's adoption and implementation of national DRR strategies. There are concerning inconsistencies and gaps that limit the applicability of risk data in development decisions.

Capturing adolescent realities in the global data revolution

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development's call to leave no one behind has brought a renewed focus on vulnerable populations historically overlooked by researchers and policy makers. Key to this inclusive mission is generating “data which is high quality, accessible, timely, reliable and disaggregated by income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migration status, disability and geographic location”. 1 UN Statistics DivisionGuidelines for the global data structure definition for Sustainable Development Goals indicators. UN Statistics Division, New York2021 Google Scholar Halfway to the endpoint of the Agenda 2030, tracking of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) has revealed substantial gaps in data on adolescence, despite increasing recognition that the ages of 10–19 years are a crucial life stage for accelerating progress against poverty, inequity, and discrimination. 2 Baird S Camfield L Ghimire A et al. Intersectionality as a framework for understanding adolescent vulnerabilities in low and middle income countries: expanding our commitment to leave no one behind. Eur J Dev Res. 2021; 33: 1143-1162 Crossref Scopus (4) Google Scholar , 3 Patton GC Sawyer SM Santelli JS et al. Our future: a Lancet commission on adolescent health and wellbeing. Lancet. 2016; 387: 2423-2478 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (1465) Google Scholar We outline challenges in generating robust adolescent-specific SDG data and identify approaches that can deliver the age-disaggregated and sex-disaggregated data that are crucial to tailoring policies and interventions to improve adolescent wellbeing across domains.