DALYcalculator {DALY}

DALY Calculator main window

Description

This function opens the main window of the DALY Calculator.

After initiating the DALY Calculator main window, the following steps have to be followed to calculate DALYs:

1. Set the ‘Population’ table

2. Set the ‘Life Expectancy’ table - the default is the standard life expectancy table introduced in the GBD2010 study

3. Set the input parameters and corresponding distributions and stratification levels

4. Set the age weighting and time discounting rates

5. Calculate DALYs !

In order to demonstrate the calculation process of the DALY Calculator, two examples from the foodborne disease burden literature are built-in:

• The burden of Taenia solium cysticercosis in Cameroon (Praet et al., 2009)

• Congenital toxoplasmosis and DALYs in the Netherlands (Kortbeek et al., 2009)

In the following sections, a brief summary will be given of the functionalities of the DALY Calculator. A more comprehensive overview is provided in the DALY Calculator manual, which is available through the DALYmanual function.

Usage

DALYcalculator()

Details

The DALY Calculator provides the following three menu options:

File

• Load DALY data from file... reads population and epidemiological data from an .RData file (through readDALYdata)

• Save DALY data to file... saves the population and epidemiological data to an .RData file (through saveDALYdata)

• Reset DALY calculator clears all entered data, and resets the DALY Calculator to its default settings, except for the life expectancy table (through reset)

• Exit exits the DALY Calculator, without saving the entered data

Settings

• Life Expectancy Table... opens the life expectancy table window (through setLifeExp)

• Options... opens the options window (through DALYoptions)

Help

• Load examples loads one of the two built-in examples (through setDALYexample)

  1. The burden of Neurocysticercosis in West-Cameroon

  2. The burden of Congenital Toxoplasmosis in the Netherlands

• Html help opens the HTML help file for the DALY Calculator (cf ?DALYcalculator)

• DALY Calculator manual (PDF) opens the DALY Calculator Manual (through DALYmanual)

• Package description opens the HTML help file for the DALY package (cf ?DALY)

• DALY Calculator Info shows current version and developers core team

Author(s)

[e-mail]

References

• http://daly.cbra.be

• Devleesschauwer B, et al. (2014). Calculating Disability-Adjusted Life Years to quantify burden of disease. International Journal of Public Health 59, 565-569. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00038-014-0552-z

• Praet N, Speybroeck N, Manzanedo R, Berkvens D, Nforninwe DN, Zoli A, Quet F, Preux P-M, Carabin H, Geerts S (2009). The disease burden of Taenia solium cysticercosis in Cameroon. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 3(3), e406.

• Kortbeek LM, Hofhuis A, Nijhuis CDM, Havelaar AH (2009). Congenital toxoplasmosis and DALYs in the Netherlands. Memorias de Instituto Oswaldo Cruz 104(2), 370-373.

See Also

A command-line interface to the DALY Calculator is available through the following functions:

• setPop opens the ‘Population’ window

• setLifeExp opens the ‘Life Expectancy’ window

• setStdLE sets the standard life expectancy

• setData opens a ‘Data’ window

• getDALY initiates the DALY calculation process and returns the simulated results

• sensitivity performs DALY sensitivity analysis

• DALY_list merges different DALY objects

See DALYmanual for a more comprehensive overview of the DALY Calculator