BACKGROUND The assessment of the economic burden of surgical disease is integral to determining allocation of resources for health globally. We estimate the economic gain realised over an 11-year period resulting from a vertical surgical programme addressing cleft lip (CL) and cleft palate (CP). METHODS The database from a large non-governmental organisation (Smile Train) over an 11-year peri...

The disability-adjusted life year (DALY) initially appeared attractive as a health metric in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) program, as it purports to be a comprehensive health assessment that encompassed premature mortality, morbidity, impairment, and disability. It was originally thought that the DALY would be useful in policy settings, reflecting normative valuations as a standardized un...

background: dietary risk factors constitute some of the leading risk factors for cardiovascular disease in iran. the current study reports the burden of ischemic heart disease (ihd) attributable to a low omega-3 fatty acids intake in iran using the data of the global burden of disease (gbd) study 2010. methods: we used data on iran for the years 1990, 2005, and 2010 derived from the gbd study c...

background: this study uses data of the global burden of diseases (gbd) study 2010 to report death, disability-adjusted life year (dalys), years of life lived with disability (ylds) and years of life lost due to premature mortality (ylls), attributed to suboptimal breastfeeding by age and gender during 1990 to 2010 in iran. materials and methods:the gbd assessments were used, together with esti...

Although the incidence of congenital heart disease (CHD) is similar worldwide, the burden of supporting these patients falls more heavily on countries with high fertility rates. In a country with a fertility rate of about eight per woman, the population has to support four times as many children with CHD as in a country with a fertility rate of two. Countries with the highest fertility rates te...

BACKGROUND Our goal was to forecast the global burden of Alzheimer's disease and evaluate the potential impact of interventions that delay disease onset or progression. METHODS A stochastic, multistate model was used in conjunction with United Nations worldwide population forecasts and data from epidemiological studies of the risks of Alzheimer's disease. RESULTS In 2006, the worldwide prev...

Copyright © 2013 Massachusetts Medical Society. It is difficult to deliver effective and high-quality care to patients without knowing their diagnoses; likewise, for health systems to be effective, it is necessary to understand the key challenges in efforts to improve population health and how these challenges are changing. Before the early 1990s, there was no comprehensive and internally consi...