Document(s) 6 of 6

Measuring  burden of disease is an overwhelming task but its outcome has far reaching consequences. It is a useful tool in the planning process and assessing the impact of interventions. The issue of burden of disease and cost-effectiveness measurements is integral to the development of the district health plan.. Burden of disease was defined by Musgrove (1994) as the total amount of healthy life years lost, to all causes, whether from premature mortality or from some degree of disability over some period of time. These disabilities can be  physical or mental.   A given disease, deficiency, or trauma may produce more than one kind of health damage, and a given disability may arise from more than one cause. The burden of disease can in principle be attributed to distinct risk factors, each of which may contribute to the likelihood to severity of one or more diseases or conditions. 

At any moment, the burden of disease in a population is a reflection of both the amount of health care already being provided and the effects of all other actions that protect or damage health. For Investing in Health, an attempt was made to estimate the burden of disease against a common measure, both globally and by region, and to estimate the cost-effectiveness of interventions against the various conditions that contribute to the burden. 

The Global Burden of Disease survey conducted for Investing in Health attempted to move beyond traditional surveys that focused only on mortality to include conditions that lead to disability (such as residual paralysis or depression), and to quantify their effects on individuals and the health system. On the basis of the International Classification of Diseases, diseases were classified into 109 categories that covered most possible causes of death and disability. 

Burden of disease measurements serve two purposes within the framework of TEHIP: 

• as a tool to assist  districts in their planning process, and  
• as a research tool to assess the impact of the intervention(s). 
  

Document(s) 6 of 6