Burden of Disease

Burden of disease is a measurement of the gap between a population’s current health and the optimal state where all people attain full life expectancy without suffering major ill-health. Disability-adjusted life year (DALY) is one measure of overall disease burden, expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death. Its analysis provides a standardized framework for integrating all available information on mortality, causes of death, individual health status, and condition-specific epidemiology to provide an overview of the levels of population health and the causes of loss of health.