Saloni Dattani

Researcher

Saloni joined us as a researcher in 2021. She is a Project Lead at Global Change Data Lab focusing on health. She has a Ph.D. in psychiatric genetics from the University of Hong Kong and King’s College London.

Saloni Dattani

Researcher

Topics covered by Saloni on Our World in Data

Featured work

Thumbnail for article: how do the risks of death change as people age

How does the risk of death change as we age – and how has this changed over time?

Death rates decline rapidly after birth but rise again in adolescence. From adulthood onwards, they rise exponentially.

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Why do women live longer than men?

Women tend to live longer than men in all countries — but the sex gap in life expectancy is not a constant.

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What were the death tolls from pandemics in history?

Pandemics have killed millions of people throughout history. How many deaths were caused by different pandemics, and how have researchers estimated their death tolls?

Latest work

November 18, 2024

17 key charts to understand the COVID-19 pandemic

The pandemic has resulted in over twenty million deaths. In this article, we review the key insights from global data on COVID-19.

November 18, 2024

How our team at Our World in Data became a global data source on COVID-19

Our small team made COVID-19 data clear, reliable, and accessible to a global audience. This is how it happened.

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November 15, 2024

Future updates of our data on COVID-19

We list our datasets on COVID-19 and the frequency with which we will update them going forward.

November 04, 2024

HPV vaccination: How the world can eliminate cervical cancer

HPV vaccines offer a rare opportunity to effectively eliminate one type of cancer. By taking this opportunity, it’s possible to save hundreds of thousands of women each year.

August 26, 2024

Antipsychotic medications: a timeline of innovations and remaining challenges

Scientists have developed effective and safer antipsychotic medications, but much improvement is still needed.

August 05, 2024

How do global statistics on suicide differ between sources?

To better monitor and prevent suicides globally, it's crucial to understand how they are measured and estimated by different sources.

An illustration of a brown eye on a blue background

June 17, 2024

Trachoma: how a common cause of blindness can be prevented worldwide

The world has seen a large decline in trachoma, but millions are still at risk. How can we make more progress against it?

Illustration of a chart showing a large decline in polio cases.

May 27, 2024

New polio vaccines are key to preventing outbreaks and achieving eradication

To reach the goal of polio eradication, we can use new vaccines to contain outbreaks and improve testing, outbreak responses, and sanitation.

Illustration of a stacked area chart showing maternal mortality data

May 13, 2024

The rise in reported maternal mortality rates in the US is largely due to a change in measurement

Maternal mortality rates appear to have risen in the last 20 years in the US. But this reflects a change in measurement rather than an actual rise in mortality.

Featured image for the article advertising our article in Lancet Public Health. A stylized image of a checklist and a pen.

May 01, 2024

Key lessons from our work on the COVID-19 pandemic are now published in Lancet Public Health

Our peer-reviewed article outlines seven ways to publish data better.

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December 14, 2023

What are the different types of cardiovascular diseases, and how many deaths do they cause?

Cardiovascular diseases are a range of related health conditions that develop in the heart and blood vessels. What are the different diseases, and what is their impact worldwide?

A thumbnail for the article explaining the difference between period and cohort measures.

November 27, 2023

Period versus cohort measures: what’s the difference?

What do the terms “period” and “cohort” mean in statistics? How do they differ, and why does it matter?

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October 09, 2023

How do statistical organizations define age periods for children?

Neonates, infants, children: what age ranges do these terms refer to?

thumbnail for article on calculating risk ratios, odds ratios and risk differences

August 09, 2023

How do researchers estimate the death toll caused by each risk factor, whether it’s smoking, obesity, or air pollution?

Risk factors are important to understand because they can help us identify how to save lives. How do researchers estimate their impact?

August 09, 2023

How are causes of death registered around the world?

In many countries, when people die, the cause of their death is officially registered in their country’s national system. How is this determined?

August 09, 2023

Risk ratios, odds ratios, risk differences: How do researchers calculate the risk from a risk factor?

The effects of risk factors can be calculated in different ways. How are they calculated and interpreted?

A thumbnail image for the article How do researchers estimate the death toll from risk factors

August 09, 2023

Why isn’t it possible to sum up the death toll from different risk factors?

Deaths caused by each risk factor can’t be added up. By understanding why, we will have a better understanding of how many lives can be saved with each intervention.

May 26, 2023

How do researchers study the prevalence of mental illnesses?

Global data on mental health is essential to understand the scale and patterns of these illnesses, and how to reduce them. How do researchers collect this data, and how reliable is it?

May 26, 2023

How are mental illnesses defined?

Mental illnesses are a range of conditions that significantly affect people’s lives. What are their symptoms?

October 20, 2022

How many people die from the flu?

The risk of death from influenza has declined over time, but globally, hundreds of thousands of people still die from the disease each year.

July 07, 2022

Guinea worm disease is close to being eradicated – how was this progress achieved?

In the late 1980s, there were near a million new cases of guinea worm disease recorded worldwide. In 2021, there were only 15. How was this achieved?

June 09, 2022

We need more testing to eradicate polio worldwide

The world is close to eradicating polio, but has been set back in the last few years. To achieve the goal of global eradication, it's crucial to improve testing.

May 18, 2022

What is the lifetime risk of depression?

Depression is one of the world’s most common health conditions. It's estimated that one-in-three women and one-in-five men have an episode of major depression by the age of 65.

April 20, 2022

Estimation of the number of paralytic polio cases by region

Only a fraction of all polio cases are reported. Here we apply a method by Tebbens et al. (2010) to estimate the actual number of global polio cases.

April 07, 2022

At what age do people experience depression for the first time?

People are being diagnosed with depression at an earlier age than in the past because of increased openness to mental health disorders and improved diagnostic guidelines.