Estimation of disability weight for paragonimiasis: a systematic analysis

Area of Science:

• Medical Parasitology
• Tropical Medicine
• Public Health

Background:

• Paragonimiasis, caused by Paragonimus spp. helminths, is a neglected tropical disease.
• Quantification of human suffering from paragonimiasis varies significantly in Global Burden of Disease (GBD) estimates.
• This study aims to systematically review clinical cases and re-quantify the disability weight for human paragonimiasis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review clinical paragonimiasis cases.
• To re-quantify the disability weight (DW) associated with human paragonimiasis.
• To inform more accurate disease burden calculations and public health prioritization.

Main Methods:

• Systematic analysis of articles from multiple databases (PubMed, Web of Science, CNKI, etc.) using "paragonim*" combined with "clinical" or "infection" search terms.
• Inclusion criteria focused on reported clinical signs, confirmed diagnosis, and absence of comorbidities.
• Disability weights were modeled using decision trees (additive and multiplicative approaches) with Monte Carlo simulations for uncertainty analysis.

Main Results:

• Overall disability weight estimated at 0.1927 (additive) and 0.1791 (multiplicative) based on 5302 clinical cases.
• Significant uncertainty intervals (95% UI) were observed for both estimates.
• Disability weights for Paragonimus westermani were higher than for P. skrjabini, with lung outcomes and headache being major contributors.

Conclusions:

• The current disability weight for paragonimiasis requires reconsideration due to data availability and species-specific variations.
• Accurate calculation of paragonimiasis disease burden needs further modification.
• Findings have significant implications for public health research, monitoring, and control strategies.