Page 11 - MALAYSIAN BURDEN OF DISEASE AND INJURY STUDY, 2015-2017

1.0

Introduction

1.1 Research Summary

The growing demand for health services under limited resources poses a challenge for government
to respond to people’s health needs effectively. Inadequate information to guide decision-making
on health policies and resource allocation is one of the obstacles for better policy development.
Previously, a variety of epidemiological indicators such as mortality rates, incidence or prevalence
of disease and injury as well as prevalence of disability (morbidity) have been employed to assess
population health status. However, these epidemiological indicators address only a limited aspect
of a population’s health status. Therefore, the development of a more comprehensive and holistic
framework which combines these indicators into summary measures of a population health to
produce age-sex-cause-specific epidemiological estimates is of critical importance (Murray et al.,
2002).

The World Bank commissioned the first Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study for its World
Development Report 1993 (World Bank, 1993) and the study was carried out in a collaboration
between the Harvard School of Public Health and the World Health Organization. This first GBD
study quantified the health effects of more than 100 diseases and injuries for eight regions of the
world in 1990 (Murray & Lopez, 1996). GBD generated comprehensive and internally consistent
estimates of mortality and morbidity by age, sex and region. The study also introduced a new
metric – the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) – as a single measure to quantify the burden of
diseases, injuries and risk factors (Murray & Lopez, 1996). The DALY is based on years of life lost
from premature death (fatal health outcomes) and years of life lived in disability (non-fatal health
outcomes). This framework also help to assess the comparative risks of health and their outcomes
in different demographic groups of the population (Murray et al., 2012).

Malaysian Burden Of Disease And Injury Study 2015-2017
CENTRE FOR BURDEN OF DISEASE RESEARCH, INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC HEALTH 1