National and sub-national burden of infectious diseases in Iran, 1990 to 2013: the study protocol.

Background:�7RDVVHVVWKHEXUGHQRILQIHFWLRXVGLVHDVHV��LWLVQHFHVVDU\�W RXWLOL)HDV\VWHPDWLFDSSURDFKIRUGDWDFROOHFWLRQDQGGHSOR\ - ing the sophisticated methods to estimate the burden of infectious diseases for health policy making at national level. The present study protocol is aimed to provide a comprehensive explanation of the general structure and method used in the national and sub-national burden of selected infectious diseases study in Iran from 1990 to 2013. Methods: The trend, burden, and geographical inequality pattern of infectious diseases will be estimated through a comprehensive review of published and unpublished data. Different sources of data including health surveys, surveillance data, hospital data surveys, death regis- WU\�V\VWHP��FHQVXV��KRXVHKROGH(SHQGLWXUHVXUYH\��DQGSXEOLVKHGPDQXVFULSWVZLOOEHV\QWKHVL)HGWRFDOFXODWHWKHHVWLPDWHV��$O OLQGLFDWRUV� will be reported by gender, age, and geographic area. Two different statistical models include "Spatio-Temporal" and "Bayesian multilevel autoregressive" will be applied to overcome the scarcity and misalignment of the obtained data. Discussion: Estimating the prevalence trend and burden of infectious diseases would be helpful to use more cost-effective interventions considering sub-national variations. Additionally, the information obtained from these studies can depict the ability of health system authori- ties in controlling these types of diseases. Overall, the present applied models can be deployed as a part of inputs in further studies to estimate the burden of diseases, not only in Iran but also all around the Middle East countries.