Global Burden of Disease 2010
The Global Burden of Disease Study commenced in 1990 as a World Bank commissioned initiative that measures the health impact of disease and injuries. It introduced the term disability-adjusted life year (DALY) as a new measure to quantify the burden of diseases and injuries. 1
It does this by addressing the following questions.
- What are the world’s major health problems?
- How well is society addressing these problems?
- How do we best dedicate resources to maximize health improvement?
It is managed by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington with the purpose “understanding the current state of population health and the strategies necessary to improve it.”
The most common measures of the health of a population are: 2
- Disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs). This calculated by summing the years of life lost with the years of life lived with disability for each location, age group, sex and year.
- Healthy life expectancy (HALE). This is calculated using age-specific death rates and years of life lived with disability per capita.
- The Sociodemographic Index (SDI) is a measure that reflects a country or region’s socio-economic development, combining income per capita, educational attainment and fertility rates.
In 2016, the highest HALE rate at birth for was Singapore (75·2 years for females and 72·0 years for males).
The lowest for females was in the Central African Republic (45·6 years) and for males was in Lesotho (41·5 years).
Australia’s HALE at birth was 72.7 for females and 70.4 for males.
From 1990 to 2016, global HALE increased by 6·04 years for males and 6·49 years for females.
HALE at age 65 years increased by 1·78 years for males and 1·96 years for females.
Total global DALYs decreased from 1990 to 2016 by –2·3% with decreases in communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional (CMNN) diseases.
The total DALY for most non-communicable diseases (NCDs) rose during this 17 year period.The five highest DALY rates in 2016 were Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Maldives, Peru, and Israel.
The leading three causes of DALYs globally were ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and lower respiratory infections, comprising 16·1% of all DALYs.
The DALY rates due to communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional (CMNN) diseases decreased from 1990 to 2016.
The 2010 report, A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990-2010, provided the following information. 3 4
The report was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The above paper has 207 contributors listed.
Millions of lives are lost each year or people are living the consequences of poor dietary choices which can be easily averted by changing what we eat.
The twenty most significant factors are shown below.
A number of these risk factors are attributable, either directly or indirectly, to diet.
| Overall Rank | Dietary Rank | Criteria |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | High blood pressure |
| 5 | 2 | Diets low in fruit |
| 6 | 3 | High body mass index |
| 7 | 4 | High fasting plasma glucose |
| 11 | 5 | Diets high in sodium |
| 12 | 6 | Diets low in nuts and seeds |
| 13 | 7 | Iron deficiency |
| 16 | 8 | Diets low in whole grains |
| 17 | 9 | Diets low in vegetables |
| 22 | 10 | High processed meat |
| 24 | 11 | Low fiber |
| 31 | 12 | Low zinc |
Sodium is greatly increased in animal-based diets and diets high in processed food. Even more important than sodium is the sodium/potassium ratio. Plant-based diets are low in sodium and high in potassium.
The survey in 1990 showed Sanitation ranked at 15. At 2010 it was ranked 26. The ranking for Unimproved water has been reduced from rank 22 down to 33.
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Last updated on Wednesday 8 April 2026 at 10:11 by administrators
Post Type: postFootnotes
- Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (2019) Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation – About [online]. Available from: www.healthdata.org/aboutOpens in a new window (Accessed 19 May 2020).
- Abajobir, A. A. et al. (2017) Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. The Lancet. 390 (10100), 1345–1422.
- Lim, S. (2012) A comparative risk assessment of burden of disease and injury attributable to 67 risk factors and risk factor clusters in 21 regions, 1990-2010. Lancet. 380 (9859), 2224–2260.
- Anon (2019) Lancet -Global Burden of Disease [online]. Available from: www.thelancet.com/gbdOpens in a new window (Accessed 27 April 2019).
However, the study has been funded by the dairy and beef industries.
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