Buden of disease
What is burden of disease?
Burden of disease is a summary measure of population health, which measures the gap between the reality and the ideal world where everyone lives to old age without any disability. Burden of disease analysis uses multiple data sources to estimate health impacts based on:
- the causes and progression of diseases
- amount of death and disability caused by the diseases
- life expectancy
- population size and distribution.
Each burden of disease analysis is updated with the latest health evidence and, to understand the changes in burden over time, the results from the prior years are also updated to the latest methodology where relevant.
The analysis generates three measures of health burden:
- the total estimate of health loss, measured as disability-adjusted life years (DALYs)
- loss due to early death, measured as years of life lost (YLL)
- loss due to living with illness or disability, measured as years lived with a disability (YLD).
DALYs are the sum of YLLs and YLDs. All three measures can be reported as a count, an age-standardised rate (ASR, or standardised rate) or a crude rate. Diseases that cause more health burden to the society, whether fatal or non-fatal, will have larger DALYs.
Burden of disease is a measure that is reported internationally. Currently, the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study includes estimates for more than 300 health conditions and 88 risk factors across more than 200 countries and territories.1 Results from the GBD quantify health loss and gaps for populations across the world, as well as the changing health challenges over time.
- Brauer M, Roth GA, Aravkin AY, et al. 2024. Global burden and strength of evidence for 88 risk factors in 204 countries and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021, The Lancet, 403(10440):2162–2203, doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(24)00933-4.