What is the Lindex?

The Lindex is the first ethnic database of disease. Since 1973 the Dr. Lindenthal has been collecting and reviewing studies dealing with the disease experience of American and Canadian Jews. Approximately 95% of this population is Ashkenazic (German or East European) in origin. The others are Sephardic Jews who originate in Spain and North Africa. Over the decades and with the advent of new technologies, including hardware and software packages for the personal computer, it became evident that the work that began with a series of typed reviews could be expanded into a powerful research tool. A database was thus created and named the Lindex.

There is no comparable database for any ethnic group that covers this array of diseases in this detail for a 126 year period (1874-2000). Data sources include journal articles, conference proceedings, community, insurance, government, hospital and vital statistics reports, doctoral dissertations as well as monographs.

 

What does the Lindex consist of?

The Lindex consists of two separate parts, the MicroLindex and the MacroLindex.

MicroLindex:

The MicroLindex is a database that records numerous variables of each study in the Lindex. These variables include: Lindex number, ICD number, name of the disease, date of study, date of publication, name(s) of author(s), title of article, title of publication, volume number, page(s), study design (cross sectional, case report, literary/historical review), nature of the study (morbidity, mortality, morbidity/mortality), source(s) of data (clinical, laboratory, record reviews, questionnaire), findings (higher, lower, no differences, significantly higher, significantly lower) as well as locations of study groups, and the locations of the authors.

MacroLindex:

The second major component of this study is known as the MacroLindex which involves a review of each disease associated with every one of the publications in text form. Each Lindex entry consists of at least one and more often several or more paragraphs.