Reply to ‘The biodiversity intactness index may underestimate losses’

Assessing biodiversity intactness at multiple scales

The Southern Africa Millennium Ecosystem Assessment developed an index for quantifying the state of biodiversity. The Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII) operates at the species level, and is based on changes in species abundance, rather than changes in richness brought about by extinction. The BII uses spatial data on species richness and land use activities per ecosystem type to weight estima...

BMI may underestimate the socioeconomic gradient in true obesity.

BACKGROUND Body mass index (BMI) does not make a distinction between fat mass and lean mass. In children, high fat mass appears to be associated with low maternal education, as well as low lean mass because maternal education is associated with physical activity. Therefore, BMI might underestimate true obesity in children of low-educated mothers. OBJECTIVE To investigate the associations of m...

Global burden of stroke: an underestimate - Authors' reply.

1 Feigin VL, Forouzanfar MH, Krishnamurthi R, et al. Global and regional burden of stroke during 1990–2010: fi ndings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet 2014; 383: 245–55. 2 Strandberg TE, Pitkala KH, Tilvis RS, O’Neill D, Erkinjuntti TJ. Geriatric syndromes–vascular disorders? Ann Med 2013; 45: 265–73. 3 Rockwood K, Middleton LE, Moorhouse PK, Skoog I, Black SE. The inclusion...

The Authors’ Reply

Predicted Values for Spirometry may Underestimate Long-Standing Asthma Severity

BACKGROUND Asthma may show an accelerated lung function decline. Asthmatics, although having FEV1 and FEV1/VC (and z-scores) higher than the lower limit of normality, may show a significant FEV1 decline when compared to previous measurements. We assessed how many asymptomatic long-standing asthmatics (LSA) with normal lung function showed a significant FEV1 decline when an older FEV1 was taken ...