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The global burden of disease: 2004 update

4 Nov 2008

Paul Chinnock

Source: World Health Organization (see original article)

The World Health Organization produces regularly updated statistics on the global burden of diseases, in response to the need for comprehensive, consistent and comparable information on diseases and injuries at global and regional level. The latest update, released October 2008, is based on 2004 data.

The global burden of disease: 2004 update is a comprehensive assessment of the health of the world’s population. It provides detailed global and regional estimates of premature mortality, disability and loss of health for 135 causes by age and sex, drawing on extensive WHO databases and on information provided by the organization’s member states.

It provides a comprehensive picture of the global and regional state of health and features comparisons between deaths, diseases and injuries by region, age, sex and country income. There are also projections of deaths and burden of disease by cause and region to the year 2030.

The report contains information on:

causes of death in different parts of the world
the leading causes of death by age, sex and disease
the numbers of people with various diseases and disabilities
how many people become ill each year
the causes of loss of health and the actual loss of years of good health: these are measured in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). One DALY is equivalent to the loss of one year of full health.

The report contains details of the top 10 causes of death and estimates for over 130 disease and injury causes. Striking findings include:

Worldwide, Africa accounts for nine out of every 10 child deaths due to malaria, for nine out of every 10 child deaths due to AIDS, and for half of the world's child deaths due to diarrhoeal disease and pneumonia.
The top five causes of death in low-income countries are: pneumonia, followed by heart disease, diarrhoea, HIV/AIDS and stroke. In high-income countries, the list is topped by heart disease and followed by stroke, lung cancer, pneumonia, and asthma/bronchitis.
Men between the ages of 15 and 60 years have much higher risks of dying than women in the same age category in every region of the world. This is mainly due to injuries, including those caused in violence and conflict, and to higher levels of heart diseases. This difference is most pronounced in Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and the eastern European regions.
Depression is the leading cause of years lost due to disability, the burden being 50% higher for females than males. In both low- and middle-income countries, and high-income countries, alcohol dependence and problem use are among the 10 leading causes of disability.

Making projections for likely changes in the burden of diseases in the years to come is fraught with difficulties but, based on recent trends, the report predicts a fall in mortality rates for several infectious diseases, including malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. In contrast, increases are predicted for cancers, ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and road traffic injury.