Patients diagnosed with SS disease defined by standard criteria (1), resident in Jamaica, who had attended one of the three study centres (Kingston, Montego Bay and Black River) (2) at least once between January 1, 1987 and December 31, 1996, were eligible for inclusion. A subgroup of attending patients were diagnosed from neonatal screening between 1973 and 1981 as part of the Jamaican Cohort Study of Sickle Cell Disease (JCS), the details of which have been described previously (3).

References

(1) Serjeant GR. Sickle cell disease (2nd edn). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

(2) Serjeant GR, Hutson C. Patterns of attendance at Jamaican sickle cell clinics 1952 to 1981. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg 1984; 78: 648–52.

(3) Serjeant GR, Grandison Y, Lowrie Y, et al. The development of haematological changes in homozygous sickle cell disease: a cohort study from birth to 6 years. Br J Haematol 1981; 48: 533–43.