[Alcohol, drugs and tobacco smoking causes much of the burden of disease--Trends in Sweden 1990-2010 mapped based DALY method]

Abstract

Various attempts have been made to measure the burden of alcohol, drugs and tobacco smoking on population health, and mortality is an often used measure. As part of the governmental strategy to prevent use of alcohol, drugs, doping and tobacco (ANDT) in Sweden, we assessed disease burden measured by DALY (Disability Adjusted Life Years), attributed to alcohol, drugs and tobacco over time, as an overall indicator of problem level. DALY was developed within the Global Burden of Disease study (GBD), and combines life lost to premature death (YLL) and years lived with disability (YLD) in one measure. In 2010 tobacco contributed to 7.7% of the total disease burden in Sweden, followed by alcohol (3.4%) and drugs (1.3%). The disease burden caused by tobacco has decreased substantially since 1990, while small changes are observed for alcohol and drugs. Much of the disease burden specially related to drugs and alcohol was related to YLD, which can be captured with the DALY measure.