Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Aug 1;28(4):773-778.
doi: 10.1093/eurpub/cky060.

Burden of disease studies in the WHO European Region-a mapping exercise

Mark R O'Donovan  1 , Christian Gapp  2 , Claudia Stein  2
Affiliations
Review

Burden of disease studies in the WHO European Region-a mapping exercise

Mark R O'Donovan et al. Eur J Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) have produced numerous global burden of disease (GBD) estimates since the 1990s, using disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs). Here we attempt to identify studies that have either independent DALY estimates or build on the work of WHO and IHME, for the WHO European Region, categorize them by scope of disease analysis and geographic coverage, and briefly compare their methodology (age weighting, discounting and disability weights).

Methods: Google and Google Scholar were used with the search terms 'DALY', 'national burden of disease', Member State names and researcher's names, covering all years. Studies were categorized as: 'specific' (fewer than five disease categories or just risk factors for a single country), 'specific, multicountry' (fewer than five disease categories or just risk factors for more than one country), 'extensive' (covering five or more but not all disease categories for one country), 'full, sub country' (covering all relevant disease categories for part of one country) and 'full, country' (covering all relevant disease categories for one country).

Results: A total of 198 studies were identified: 143 'specific', 26 'specific, multicountry', 7 'extensive', 10 'full, sub country' and 12 'full, country' [England (1), Estonia (2), France (1), Romania (1), Serbia (1), Spain (3), Sweden (2) and Turkey (1)]. About 5 (20%) of the 25 examinable 'extensive', 'full, sub country' and 'full, country' studies calculated DALYs using GBD 2010 methodology.

Conclusions: Independent burden of diseases studies in Europe have been located, and categorized by scope of disease analysis and geographic coverage. Methodological choices varied between independent 'full, country' studies.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Number of burden of disease studies published each year. Colours of each bar provide a breakdown of the types of studies conducted each year as follows: light grey (leftmost) bar—specific studies; dark grey (second from left) bar—specific, multicountry studies; very dark grey (third from left) bar—extensive studies; darkest grey (fourth from left) bar—full, sub country studies; black (fifth from left) bar—full, country studies; numbered white bar with a black outline (rightmost)—total number of BoD studies aPlease note that the online searches for this review were conducted between April and July 2016.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Map of the WHO European Region showing the total number of burden of disease studies conducted for each Member State and the most comprehensive type of study for each. Colours illustrate the most comprehensive type of study for each Member State as follows: light grey shading with black text—specific studies (including multicountrya); dark grey shading with black text—extensive study; dark grey shading with white text—full, sub country study; black shading with white text—full, country studybaPlease note that specific multicountry studies that cover over half the Member States (N =17) are not included on this map. bPlease note that the full, country study for UK only covers England, not the whole of UK
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Last JM. A Dictionary of Public Health. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
    1. Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, USA. Available at: http://www.healthdata.org/gbd/about/history (16 November 2017, date last accessed).
    1. Donev D, Zaletel-Kragelj L, Bjegovic V, Burazeri G. Measuring the burden of disease: disability adjusted life year (DALY) In: Zaletel-Kragelj L, Božikov J, editors. Methods and Tools in Public Health: A Handbook for Teachers, Researchers and Health Professionals. Lage: Hans Jacobs, 2010: 715–48.
    1. Mathers CD, Vos T, Lopez AD, et al.National Burden of Disease Studies: A Practical Guide, 2nd ednGeneva: World Health Organization, 2001.
    1. Prüss-Ustün A, Mathers C, Corvalán C, Woodward A. Introduction and Methods: Assessing the Environmental Burden of Disease at National and Local Levels, 1st ednGeneva: World Health Organization, 2003.

Publication types