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In the face of growing health demands, policy-makers
are facing difficult decisions regarding the allocation of limited
resources. Informed and strategic decision-making relies on an accurate
picture of the relative impact of diseases and conditions so that policies
result in the greatest health gains for the population.
Measuring the burden of disease and conditions in
the country and understanding which sub-populations are most effected is a critical
component of targeted policy-making. In response to the lack of basic,
accurate data for informed priority setting, WHO and others have undertaken
work on estimating the global burden of disease (BoD).
The Global Burden of Disease project undertaken by WHO and others has
attempted to bring together the available data on disease incidence,
prevalence, severity, duration, and mortality for a more accurate summary of
population health status that can be used for monitoring and comparative
purposes.
In 1992, the World Bank commissioned researchers at WHO, Harvard
University and others
to conduct the initial Global BoD study based on
1990 data. This initial study was significant in that it established a
methodology not only reflecting the disease mortality rates but also
quantifying the effect of premature death and disability and integrates these
components into a common “measure of the overall burden of disease on the
population”. The metric developed is a disability-adjusted life year or DALY.
The DALY expresses years of life lost to premature death and years lived with
a disability of specified severity and duration. In other words, one DALY is
equivalent to one lost year of healthy life.
Importantly, the work takes into account the burden
of non-communicable diseases, including mental illness and injury, which are
not only growing in terms of magnitude of burden but also in terms of the
resources need to control and treat. In fact, by 2020, non-communicable
diseases are projected to account for 70% of deaths in developing countries.
Furthermore, the BoD methodology allowed the
quantification of the impact of risk factors on population health and provided policy-makers a basis to compare the relative
cost-effectiveness of different interventions
Since the 1990 study, the WHO Global BoD project has refined the methodology and updated the BoD estimations for years 2000-2002, reporting revisions
in the annual World Health Reports. The results of the 2001 Global Burden of
Disease study improved the framework for the assessment of the disease and
injury burden from major risk factors and the quantification of uncertainties
in estimation. The global, regional and country level data can be found on
the WHO headquarters website.
The WHO is now undertaking a new assessment of the
Global Burden of Disease for the year 2004 and, recently, WHO has refined BoD projections for the years 2002-2030 based on 2002
estimates. The global burden of disease work has also spawned several
national and subnational level BoD
estimations including by the states of Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.
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Reports
 Database for Disease Burden
Estimation Malaria, Filaria, Dengue & Diarrhoeal Diseases New
Other Publications
Projections of Global
Mortality and Burden of Disease from 2002 to 2030
Global Burden of Disease and Risk Factors
State-level BOD Studies
 Himachal Burden of Disease– Department of Health and
Family Welfare Himachal Pradesh
Burden of Non-Communicable Diseases
Burden of Non-Communicable
Diseases in South Asia – Ghaffar A, Reddy SK and Singhi M
Workshop
National Workshop on Developing Protocols for
Morbidity Field Surveys, 23-24 Nov. 2006
Links
WHO Website on Burden of
Disease Statistics
WHO Resources for National
Burden of Disease Studies
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