Measuring the Global Burden of Disease

This article discusses the measurement of global burden of disease using QALY and DALY. It explains the WHO guidelines and GBD study for disease burden assessment. The article is useful for researchers and students studying public health and epidemiology.

Running head: MEASURING THE GLOBAL BURDEN OF DISEASE
MEASURING THE GLOBAL BURDEN OF DISEASE
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1MEASURING THE GLOBAL BURDEN OF DISEASE
Global burden of disease and its measurement
The global burden of a disease can be defined as the prevalence of a particular disease all
over the world, its effect on the community, population, its burden on the national GDP. The
global burden of a disease is often measured by considering the quality adjusted life or the
disability –adjusted life years (QALY). They are used for the quantification of the number of
years that has been lost because of any clinical illness. The QALY considers both the quality of
life and the quantity of life generated in the health intervention. A year of life with perfect health
is considered as 1, whilst a year of complete functional impairment is measured to be zero
(World Health Organization., 2012).
The disability adjusted life years (DALY) can be considered as the potential years of life
lost due to the death that has occurred prematurely (YLL) and corresponding years of “healthy”
life lost owing to an disability or diseases. The disabilities might be physical or mental (Hay et
al., 2017). World health organisation has provided a set of guidelines for the measurement of the
disease burden of a locality and a nation. One of the well-known assessment of the burden of
disease is the “ Global burden of the disease study” conducted by the world health organisation.
The researchers who were conducting the GBD studies are the ones who first discovered or used
the concept of DALYs (World Health Organization., 2012). The WHO Global health estimates
provides a comparable and a comprehensive assessment of loss of health due to diseases. The
GBD project quantified the health effects of more than 100 diseases injuries for almost eight
regions in the world which helps the researchers to understand the burden of a particular health

2MEASURING THE GLOBAL BURDEN OF DISEASE
issue (Murray & Lopez, 2013). The GBD study generates a comprehensive estimation of the
mortality and morbidity as per sex, age and region. A methodology has been developed by
WHO quantifying the health of a population by the use of the summary measures (DALY). The
approach based on exposure measures the exposure by the level of the pollutants used for the
calculation of the ecological burden of the disease (World Health Organization., 2012). The
metrics used in GBD would help in analysing the information obtained in each of the conditions
making the information comparable and systematic. In spite of the different assessment methods
devised, there is almost non consensus on the best measure of the public health.

3MEASURING THE GLOBAL BURDEN OF DISEASE
References
Hay, S. I., Abajobir, A. A., Abate, K. H., Abbafati, C., Abbas, K. M., Abd-Allah, F., ... &
Aboyans, V. (2017). Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life-years
(DALYs) for 333 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE) for 195
countries and territories, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of
Disease Study 2016. The Lancet, 390(10100), 1260-1344.
Murray, C. J., & Lopez, A. D. (2013). Measuring the global burden of disease. New England
Journal of Medicine, 369(5), 448-457.
World Health Organization., (2012).About the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) project. Access
date: 25.1.2019. Retrieved from:
https://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/about/en/