Capture-recapture, epidemiology, and list mismatches: Several lists

In applying capture-recapture methods for closed populations to epidemiolog y, e.g., in the estimation of the size of a diabetes population, one comes up, against the problem of list errors due to mistyping or misinformation. This problem has been studied for just two lists by Seber, Huakau, and Simm ons (2000, Biometrics 56, 1227-1232) using the concept of tag loss borrowed from animal population studies. In this article, we discuss a similar meth od that call be extended to an arbitrary number of lists. The methods are a pplied to an example.