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BMC Public Health
Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2014

Open Access 01-12-2014 | Debate

Quantifying burden of disease to support public health policy in Belgium: opportunities and constraints

Authors: Brecht Devleesschauwer, Charline Maertens de Noordhout, G Suzanne A Smit, Luc Duchateau, Pierre Dorny, Claudia Stein, Herman Van Oyen, Niko Speybroeck

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2014

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Abstract

Background

To support public health policy, information on the burden of disease is essential. In recent years, the Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY) has emerged as the most important summary measure of public health. DALYs quantify the number of healthy life years lost due to morbidity and mortality, and thereby facilitate the comparison of the relative impact of diseases and risk factors and the monitoring of public health over time.

Discussion

Evidence on the disease burden in Belgium, expressed as DALYs, is available from international and national efforts. Non-communicable diseases and injuries dominate the overall disease burden, while dietary risks, tobacco smoking, and high body-mass index are the major risk factors for ill health. Notwithstanding these efforts, if DALYs were to be used for guiding health policy, a more systematic approach is required. By integrating DALYs in the current data generating systems, comparable estimates, rooted in recent local data, can be produced. This might however be hampered by several restrictions, such as limited harmonization, timeliness, inclusiveness and accessibility of current databases.

Summary

Routine quantification of disease burden in terms of DALYs would provide a significant added value to evidence-based public health policy in Belgium, although some hurdles need to be cleared.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Quantifying burden of disease to support public health policy in Belgium: opportunities and constraints
Authors
Brecht Devleesschauwer
Charline Maertens de Noordhout
G Suzanne A Smit
Luc Duchateau
Pierre Dorny
Claudia Stein
Herman Van Oyen
Niko Speybroeck
Publication date
01-12-2014
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2014
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-1196

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