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Call for papers: Burden of disease

Edited by Brecht Devleesschauwer and Henk Hilderink

© mthipsorn / Getty Images / iStockWhat are the most prevalent diseases in a country? Which risk factors are the strongest contributors to disease and death? How is the impact of different diseases evolving over time, and how does it compare between countries and within subnational units? With an increasing need for prioritizing the use of available resources, a timely, sound and comprehensive answer to these fundamental questions is needed more than ever to inform public health decision making. Driven by the impact of the Global Burden of Disease study, several researchers and health institutes have adopted the burden of disease approach to address these questions. Fundamental to this approach is the use of the Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY) metric, as a single, comprehensive, and comparable summary measure of population health.

The burden of disease approach is, however, hampered by the complexity of the methodology and the need for high quality data. This collection aims to provide a platform for discussing methodological challenges and advances in the burden of disease approach.

We welcome the following:

  • Manuscripts dealing with methodological challenges related to the burden of disease approach.
  • Manuscripts presenting methodological advances in the burden of disease approach.
  • Manuscripts dealing with knowledge translation of burden of disease estimates.
  • Novel burden of disease studies using the DALY metric.

This collection, part of the Health information systems section of the journal, is open for submissions of research, methodology, study protocol, systematic review, and commentary articles. All articles that are submitted to this collection will undergo the journal’s normal peer review process and be subject to an article-processing charge. Manuscripts should be formatted according to our submission guidelines and submitted via the online submission system. In the submission system please make sure that the correct collection title is chosen at the 'Additional Information' step. Please also indicate clearly in the covering letter that the manuscript is to be considered for this collection.

This collection is now closed for submissions, please visit Archives of Public Health to view more collections

  1. The loss of vision is a substantial public health concern that has important implications for an individual’s quality of life. The primary objective of this research was to document the burden of vision loss i...

    Authors: Erfan Bahremani, Mahasti Alizadeh, Seyed Aria Nejadghaderi, Maryam Noori, Mark J M Sullman, Ali-Asghar Kolahi and Saeid Safiri
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2023 81:172
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. Leukemia contributes significantly to the global cancer burden. Due to the importance of evaluating improvements in leukemia outcomes, the current study aimed to examine the variations in mortality-to-incidenc...

    Authors: Maedeh Amini, Rajesh Sharma and Chinmay Jani
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2023 81:151
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. A major challenge for most tuberculosis programs is the inability of tuberculosis patients to complete treatment for one reason or another. Failure to complete the treatment contributes to the emergence of mul...

    Authors: Daba Bulto Fufa, Tadele Akeba Diriba, Kenenisa Tadesse Dame and Legesse Kassa Debusho
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2023 81:117
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. Within the framework of the burden of disease (BoD) approach, disease and injury burden estimates attributable to risk factors are a useful guide for policy formulation and priority setting in disease preventi...

    Authors: Vanessa Gorasso, Joana Nazaré Morgado, Periklis Charalampous, Sara M. Pires, Juanita A. Haagsma, João Vasco Santos, Jane Idavain, Che Henry Ngwa, Isabel Noguer, Alicia Padron-Monedero, Rodrigo Sarmiento, Vera Pinheiro, Elena Von der Lippe, Lea Sletting Jakobsen, Brecht Devleesschauwer and Dietrich Plass
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2023 81:116
    Content type: Systematic Review Published on:

  5. Treatment of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is effective in preventing progression to TB disease. This study aimed to synthesize available evidence on the efficacy, adherence, and safety of LTBI treatmen...

    Authors: Dawit Getachew Assefa, Ahmed Bedru, Eden Dagnachew Zeleke, Solomon Emiru Negash, Dejene Tolossa Debela, Wondowsen Molla, Nebiyu Mengistu, Tigist Tekle Woldesenbet, Neway Fekede Bedane, Violet Dismas Kajogoo, Mary Gorret Atim and Tsegahun Manyazewal
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2023 81:82
    Content type: Systematic Review Published on:

  6. Seroprevalence studies about chikungunya infection are usually conducted after epidemics to estimate the magnitude of the attack. This study aimed to estimate the seroprevalence of CHIKV by WHO region, conside...

    Authors: Lacita Menezes Skalinski, Aline Elena Sacramento Santos, Enny Paixão, Martha Itaparica, Florisneide Barreto, Maria da Conceição Nascimento Costa and Maria Glória Teixeira
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2023 81:80
    Content type: Systematic Review Published on:

  7. Stroke is the second leading cause of death in adults worldwide. There are remarkable geographical variations in the accessibility to emergency medical services (EMS). Moreover, transport delays have been docu...

    Authors: Ali Hadianfar, Payam Sasannezhad, Eisa Nazar, Razieh Yousefi, Mohammadtaghi Shakeri, Zahra Jafari and Soheil Hashtarkhani
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2023 81:73
    Content type: Comment Published on:

  8. Ethiopia is one of the top 10 countries in the world where 90% visceral leishmaniasis cases are reported. Metema-Humera lowlands are the most important foci in Ethiopia. Blood transfusion in visceral leishmani...

    Authors: Iyasu Melkie, Mulat Yimer, Getaneh Alemu and Banchamlak Tegegne
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2023 81:62
    Content type: Research Published on:

  10. A comprehensive overview of the burden of disease of burns for the full spectrum of care is not available. Therefore, we estimated the burden of disease of burns for the full spectrum in the Netherlands in 201...

    Authors: Inge Spronk, Margriet E. van Baar, Robert A. Verheij, Martien J. Panneman, Jan Dokter, Suzanne Polinder and Juanita A. Haagsma
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2023 81:3
    Content type: Research Published on:

  11. In a context of decreasing resources and growing health needs, evidence-based health and care policies are essential. This study aims to assess the health trends in Belgium between 1990 and 2019, to compare th...

    Authors: Jinane Ghattas, Vanessa Gorasso, Robby De Pauw, Sophie Thunus, Niko Speybroeck and Brecht Devleesschauwer
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2022 80:222
    Content type: Research Published on:

  12. Regularly updated epidemiological data on the burden of brain and central nervous system (CNS) cancers are important in the prioritization of research and the allocation of resources. This study aimed to inves...

    Authors: Yang Fan, Xian Zhang, Chao Gao, Shuai Jiang, Haoze Wu, Zhanhui Liu and Taotao Dou
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2022 80:209
    Content type: Research Published on:

  13. India is one of the fastest-growing developing economies associated with many socio-demographic challenges that include a high density of population, growing urbanization, and poor road infrastructure. These c...

    Authors: Deepak Kumar Behera, Sanjay Kumar Singh and Dinesh Kumar Choudhury
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2022 80:204
    Content type: Research Published on:

  14. There is no region-specific publication investigating the attributable burden of breast cancer, particularly among females. This article reported the burden of female breast cancer in the Middle East and North...

    Authors: Saeid Safiri, Maryam Noori, Seyed Aria Nejadghaderi, Mark J. M. Sullman, Nicola Luigi Bragazzi, Amir Almasi-Hashiani, Mohammad Ali Mansournia and Ali-Asghar Kolahi
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2022 80:168
    Content type: Research Published on:

  15. Burden of disease analyses quantify population health and provide comprehensive overviews of the health status of countries or specific population groups. The comparative risk assessment (CRA) methodology is c...

    Authors: Dietrich Plass, Henk Hilderink, Heli Lehtomäki, Simon Øverland, Terje A. Eikemo, Taavi Lai, Vanessa Gorasso and Brecht Devleesschauwer
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2022 80:148
    Content type: Methodology Published on:

  16. Injury remains a major concern to public health in the European region. Previous iterations of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study showed wide variation in injury death and disability adjusted life year (...

    Authors: Juanita A. Haagsma, Periklis Charalampous, Filippo Ariani, Anne Gallay, Kim Moesgaard Iburg, Evangelia Nena, Che Henry Ngwa, Alexander Rommel, Ausra Zelviene, Kedir Hussein Abegaz, Hanadi Al Hamad, Luciana Albano, Catalina Liliana Andrei, Tudorel Andrei, Ippazio Cosimo Antonazzo, Olatunde Aremu…
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2022 80:142
    Content type: Research Published on:

  17. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) combine the impact of morbidity and mortality and can enable comprehensive, and comparable, assessments of direct and indirect health harms due to COVID-19. Our aim was t...

    Authors: Grant M. A. Wyper, Eilidh Fletcher, Ian Grant, Gerry McCartney, Colin Fischbacher, Oliver Harding, Hannah Jones, Maria Teresa de Haro Moro, Niko Speybroeck, Brecht Devleesschauwer and Diane L. Stockton
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2022 80:105
    Content type: Research Published on:

  18. The disability weight is an essential factor to estimate the healthy time that is lost due to living with a certain state of illness. A 2014 review showed a considerable variation in methods used to derive dis...

    Authors: Periklis Charalampous, Suzanne Polinder, Jördis Wothge, Elena von der Lippe and Juanita A. Haagsma
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2022 80:91
    Content type: Systematic review Published on:

  19. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) accounted for over 90% of all deaths in the Cypriot population, in 2018. However, a detailed and comprehensive overview of the impact of NCDs on population health of Cyprus ove...

    Authors: Periklis Charalampous, Elena Pallari, Stefanos Tyrovolas, Nicos Middleton, Mary Economou, Brecht Devleesschauwer and Juanita A. Haagsma
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2021 79:138
    Content type: Research Published on:

  20. The InfAct (Information for Action) project is a European Commission Joint Action on Health Information which has promoted the potential role of burden of disease (BoD) approaches to improve the current European ...

    Authors: Romana Haneef, Jürgen Schmidt, Anne Gallay, Brecht Devleesschauwer, Ian Grant, Alexander Rommel, Grant MA Wyper, Herman Van Oyen, Henk Hilderink, Thomas Ziese and John Newton
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2021 79:126
    Content type: Methodology Published on:

  21. Burden of Disease (BoD) studies use disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) as a population health metric to quantify the years of life lost due to morbidity and premature mortality for diseases, injuries and r...

    Authors: Sarah Cuschieri, Elena Pallari, Natasa Terzic, Ala’a Alkerwi, Rannveig Sigurvinsdottir, Inga Dora Sigfusdottir and Brecht Devleesschauwer
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2021 79:73
    Content type: Commentary Published on:

  22. The cause of death statistics in Germany include a relatively high share (26% in 2017) of ill-defined deaths (IDD). To make use of the cause of death statistics for Burden of Disease calculations we redistribu...

    Authors: Annelene Wengler, Heike Gruhl, Dietrich Plaß, Janko Leddin, Alexander Rommel and Elena von der Lippe
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2021 79:33
    Content type: Research Published on:

  23. Knowledge Translation (KT) and data visualization play a vital role in the dissemination of data and information to improve healthcare systems. A better understanding of KT and its utility requires examining i...

    Authors: Amelia Lundkvist, Ziad El-Khatib, Nikhila Kalra, Tomas Pantoja, Katherine Leach-Kemon, Christian Gapp and Tanja Kuchenmüller
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2021 79:17
    Content type: Research Published on:

  24. Summary measures of population health are increasingly used in different public health reporting systems for setting priorities for health care and social service delivery and planning.

    Authors: Elena von der Lippe, Brecht Devleesschauwer, Michelle Gourley, Juanita Haagsma, Henk Hilderink, Michael Porst, Annelene Wengler, Grant Wyper and Ian Grant
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2020 78:137
    Content type: Research Published on:

  25. Legionnaires’ disease (LD) is a severe bacterial infection causing pneumonia. Surveillance commonly underestimates the true incidence as not all cases are laboratory confirmed and reported to public health aut...

    Authors: Christina Fastl, Brecht Devleesschauwer, Dieter van Cauteren, Adrien Lajot, Mathias Leroy, Valeska Laisnez, Carole Schirvel, Romain Mahieu, Denis Pierard, Charlotte Michel and Stéphanie Jacquinet
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2020 78:92
    Content type: Research Published on:

  26. Acceptance of Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY) as a measure of health summary and progression has increased over the years, which in turn has instigated comparative analysis studies of DALY across time and...

    Authors: Nitya Saxena and Deepak Sethia
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2020 78:91
    Content type: Methodology Published on:

  27. Australia’s 1996 national burden of disease (BoD) study was one of the first in the world and updates have continued over the following two decades with the fifth study now underway. The studies adapt the glob...

    Authors: Lynelle Moon, Michelle Gourley, John Goss, Miriam Lum On, Paula Laws, Anna Reynolds and Richard Juckes
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2020 78:88
    Content type: Commentary Published on:

  28. The Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY) is a measure to prioritize in the public health field. In the Netherlands, the DALY estimates are calculated since 1997 and are included in the Public Health Status and...

    Authors: Henk B. M. Hilderink, Marjanne H. D. Plasmans, M. J. J. C. (René) Poos, Petra E. D. Eysink and Ronald Gijsen
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2020 78:85
    Content type: Methodology Published on:

  30. Maternal and child mortalities are the main public health problems worldwide and both are the major health concern in developing countries such as Africa and Asia. The fertility behavior of women characterized...

    Authors: Zemenu Tadesse Tessema, Melkalem Mamuye Azanaw, Yeaynmarnesh Asmare Bukayaw and Kassahun Alemu Gelaye
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2020 78:74
    Content type: Research Published on:

  31. Low back pain (LBP) is a public health concern and a leading cause of ill health. A high prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints has been reported for Malta, a small European state. The aim was to estimate fo...

    Authors: Sarah Cuschieri, Grant M. A. Wyper, Neville Calleja, Vanessa Gorasso and Brecht Devleesschauwer
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2020 78:68
    Content type: Research Published on:

  32. The disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) summarize the burden of years of life lost (YLL) due to premature mortality and years lost due to disability (YLD). Our aim was to estimate the burden of ischemic hea...

    Authors: Laura Paalanen, Jaakko Reinikainen, Tommi Härkänen, Tiina Mattila, Tiina Laatikainen, Pekka Jousilahti and Hanna Tolonen
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2020 78:58
    Content type: Research Published on:

  33. Evidence has emerged showing that elderly people and those with pre-existing chronic health conditions may be at higher risk of developing severe health consequences from COVID-19. In Europe, this is of partic...

    Authors: Grant M. A. Wyper, Ricardo Assunção, Sarah Cuschieri, Brecht Devleesschauwer, Eilidh Fletcher, Juanita A. Haagsma, Henk B. M. Hilderink, Jane Idavain, Tina Lesnik, Elena Von der Lippe, Marek Majdan, Milena S. Milicevic, Elena Pallari, José L. Peñalvo, Sara M. Pires, Dietrich Plaß…
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2020 78:47
    Content type: Research Published on:

    The Correction to this article has been published in Archives of Public Health 2020 78:57

  34. Severity distributions are a means of summarising the range of health loss suffered to disease which enables estimates of disease occurrence to be paired with disability weights to estimate Years Lost to Disab...

    Authors: Grant M. A. Wyper, Ian Grant, Eilidh Fletcher, Neil Chalmers, Gerry McCartney and Diane L. Stockton
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2020 78:3
    Content type: Commentary Published on:

    The Correction to this article has been published in Archives of Public Health 2020 78:29

  35. Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) are an established method for quantifying population health needs and guiding prioritisation decisions. Global Burden of Disease (GBD) estimates aim to ensure comparabili...

    Authors: Grant M. A. Wyper, Ian Grant, Eilidh Fletcher, Gerry McCartney, Colin Fischbacher and Diane L. Stockton
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2020 78:1
    Content type: Research Published on:

  36. In Belgium, different routine surveillance systems are in place to follow-up Lyme borreliosis trends. However, accurate data on the disease and monetary burden for the different clinical manifestations are lac...

    Authors: Laurence Geebelen, Tinne Lernout, Benoît Kabamba-Mukadi, Veroniek Saegeman, Hein Sprong, Steven Van Gucht, Philippe Beutels, Niko Speybroeck and Katrien Tersago
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2017 75:42
    Content type: Study protocol Published on:

  37. Utilities and disability weights (DWs) are metrics used for calculating Quality-Adjusted Life Years and Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), respectively. Utilities can be obtained with multi-attribute inst...

    Authors: C. Maertens de Noordhout, B. Devleesschauwer, L. Gielens, M. H. D. Plasmans, J. A. Haagsma and N. Speybroeck
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2017 75:6
    Content type: Research Published on:

  38. Various Burden of Disease (BoD) studies do not account for multimorbidity in their BoD estimates. Ignoring multimorbidity can lead to inaccuracies in BoD estimations, particularly in ageing populations that in...

    Authors: Henk B. M. Hilderink, Marjanne H. D. Plasmans, Bianca E. P. Snijders, Hendriek C. Boshuizen, M. J. J. C. (René) Poos and Coen H. van Gool
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2016 74:37
    Content type: Research Published on:

  39. Authors: Charline Maertens de Noordhout, Brecht Devleesschauwer, Diallo Lamarana, Juanita Haagsma, Arie Havelaar, Sophie Quoilin, Sophie Bertrand, Yves Dupont, Olivier Vandenberg, Patrick Brandt and Niko Speybroeck
    Citation: Archives of Public Health 2015 73(Suppl 1):K3
    Content type: Keynote lecture presentation Published on:

    This article is part of a Supplement: Volume 73 Supplement 1