Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Disease Burden Measures: a Review

  • Epidemiology (JI Silverberg, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Dermatology Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Understanding disease burden is necessary to optimally distribute resources, direct research efforts, and prioritize healthcare interventions. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study was established in 1990 with the goal of providing accurate, transparent data for all diseases across the globe. In order to measure disease burden, this study employs disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), a metric which incorporates mortality and burden of living with a disease into a single unit. This open access database includes data from 2010 covering 291 conditions, 1160 sequelae, and 67 risk factors across 187 countries, allowing a comprehensive assessment of the world’s health as a whole and evaluation of potential regional differences in disease burden. Overall, GBD 2010 demonstrated that skin conditions rank fourth in terms of non-fatal disease burden. Additionally, 8 skin disorders rank in the top 50 most prevalent diseases worldwide. This resource highlights the importance of skin disease internationally and serves as an important resource for further refining our understanding the role of cutaneous disorders in across diverse societal, cultural, and environmental contexts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

  1. Chiang CL. An index of health: mathematical models. Vital Health Stat. 1965;1(94):1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Chen MK. The gross national health product: a proposed population health index. Public Health Rep. 1979;94(2):119–23.

    PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Sassi F. Calculating QALYs, comparing QALY and DALY calculations. Health Policy Plan. 2006;21(5):402–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Murray CL, Lopez AD, editors. Summary: Global Burden of Disease—a comprehensive assessment of mortality and disability from diseases, injuries, and risk factors in 1990 and projected to 2020. Boston: Harvard School of Public Health; 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Murray CJ, Lopez AD, Wibulpolprasert S. Monitoring global health: time for new solutions. BMJ. 2004;329(7474):1096–100.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Murray CJ, Lopez AD. Mortality by cause for eight regions of the world: Global Burden of Disease Study. Lancet. 1997;349(9061):1269–76.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Murray CJ, Lopez AD. Global mortality, disability, and the contribution of risk factors: Global Burden of Disease Study. Lancet. 1997;349(9063):1436–42.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Murray CJ. Quantifying the burden of disease: the technical basis for disability-adjusted life years. Bull World Health Organ. 1994;72(3):429–45.

    PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Murray CJ, Vos T, Lozano R, et al. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 291 diseases and injuries in 21 regions, 1990–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet. 2012;380(9859):2197–223. Crucial landmark update of the original GBD study, which increased the number of conditions, sequelae, risk factors and countries included. This study also reanalyzed the original data from 1990 to allow more accurate comparison with new data.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Murray CJ, Lopez AD. Measuring the global burden of disease. N Engl J Med. 2013;369(5):448–57.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Hay RJ, Johns NE, Williams HC, Bolliger IW, Dellavalle RP, Margolis DJ, et al. The global burden of skin disease in 2010: an analysis of the prevalence and impact of skin conditions. J Invest Dermatol. 2014;134(6):1527–34. First study to look more critically and specifically at the dermatologic conditions included in the mass of GBD data.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Karimkhani C, Boyers LN, Margolis DJ, Naghavi M, Hay RJ, Williams HC, et al. Comparing cutaneous research funded by the national institute of arthritis and musculoskeletal and skin diseases with 2010 global burden of disease results. PLoS One. 2014;9(7):e102122.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Karimkhani C, Boyers LN, Prescott L, Welch V, Delamere FM, Nasser M, et al. Global burden of skin disease as reflected in Cochrane database of systematic reviews. JAMA Dermatol. 2014. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2014.709. Comparison of the burden of skin disease with the current research efforts using Cochrane reviews as a way to quantify research efforts. Allows comparison between what is causing people problems and what investigators are doing to fix these problems.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Boyers LN, Karimkhani C, Hilton J, Richheimer W, Dellavalle RP. Global burden of eye and vision disease as reflected in the Cochrane database of systematic reviews. JAMA Ophthalmol. 2014. doi:10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2014.3527.

    Google Scholar 

  15. About GBD. Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Web site. http://www.healthdata.org/gbd/about. Accessed July 14, 2014. Website contains open access to all GBD data and comparison of any subset of the data. This allows researchers or individuals access to their wealth of data to promote new interpretations of the data.

  16. Karimkhani C, Boyers LN, Naghavi M, Coffeng LE, Lott JP, Wulf S, et al. The global burden of disease associated with alopecia areata. Br J Dermatol. 2014. doi:10.1111/bjd.13559.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Compliance with Ethics Guidelines

Conflict of Interest

K Goff, LN Boyers, C Karimkhani, JP Lott, and RP Dellavalle all declare no conflicts of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, SC, USA

    Kiera Goff

  2. Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA

    Lindsay N. Boyers

  3. Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY, USA

    Chante Karimkhani

  4. Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Jason P. Lott

  5. Dermatology Service, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Connecticut Health Care System, West Haven, CT, USA

    Jason P. Lott

  6. Dermatology Service, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Eastern Colorado Health Care System, Denver, CO, USA

    Robert P. Dellavalle

  7. Department of Dermatology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA

    Robert P. Dellavalle

  8. Department of Epidemiology, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA

    Robert P. Dellavalle

  9. Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center, 1055 Clermont Street, Box 165, Denver, CO, 80220, USA

    Robert P. Dellavalle

Authors
  1. Kiera Goff
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lindsay N. Boyers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Chante Karimkhani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jason P. Lott
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Robert P. Dellavalle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert P. Dellavalle.

Additional information

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Epidemiology

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Goff, K., Boyers, L.N., Karimkhani, C. et al. Disease Burden Measures: a Review. Curr Derm Rep 4, 30–35 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13671-014-0094-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13671-014-0094-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation