Aims of the Global Burden Disease studies (cont.)

Studies of the burden of disease adopt a comprehensive approach to the estimation of the burden of disease. They use consistent definitions and methods and combine the loss of healthy life that results from death and disability due to each condition into a single measure. They also adopt a comprehensive approach to estimation. In particular, burden of disease studies measure loss of healthy life:

• to both death and disability in an integrated way
• to the entire range of diseases and injuries, not just one or a limited set of health conditions
• in entire populations, at all ages, and of both sexes.

Why is it important to measure loss of healthy life to both death and disability in an integrated way? Please try and answer the questions for yourself before obtaining feedback.

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It is important to consider disability as well as mortality because focusing on mortality statistics yields an exaggerated impression of the relative importance of frequently fatal diseases such as stroke or lung cancer. In contrast, it reduces the “visibility” of diseases that cause a lot of disability, but few or no deaths. Examples of such diseases include most mental health problems, the various causes of sight loss, and conditions such as lower-back pain. Diseases which get wholly or largely omitted from statistics on health may get neglected as a result by health planners and suffer in the allocation of resources to health programmes and health research.