Korean National Burden of Disease: The Importance of Diabetes Management

Abstract

Diagnosing the current health status and disease burden in a population is crucial for public health interventions. The ability to compare the burden of different diseases through a single measure, such as disability-adjusted life years has become feasible and continues to be produced and updated through the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) study. However, the disease burden values of the GBD study do not accurately reflect the unique situation in a specific country with various circumstances. In response, the Korean National Burden of Disease (KNBD) study was conducted to estimate the disease burden in Koreans by considering Korea's cultural context and utilizing the available data sources at the national level. Both studies identified non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes mellitus (DM), as the primary cause of disease burden among Koreans. However, the extent of public health interventions currently being conducted by the central and local governments does not align with the severity of the disease burden. This review suggests that despite the high burden of DM in South Korea, the current policies may not fully address its impact, underscoring the need for expanded chronic disease management programs and a shift towards prevention-focused healthcare paradigms.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus; Global burden of disease; Public health.

Fig. 1.

An illustration of the concept of disability-adjusted life year. Disease A, B, C, and death mean disease and death occurrence.

Fig. 2.

(A) Top 20 leading causes of burden of diseases in Korea. This figure represents a restructured version of the authors’ research results. Adapted from Jung et al. [78]. (B) Trends of Korean national burden of diabetes mellitus by sex. DALY, disability-adjusted life year; TNI, tubulointerstitial nephritis; UNI, urinary tract infection.