Visit “Global: Both Sexes, All Ages, 2016, DALYs” on the Institute for Health Metrics and
Evaluation GBD Compare Data Visualization Hub website. Compare the primary causes of
disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) from countries in two different socio-demographic
index levels or economic regions. Identify three social or political-economic differences that
help explain the differences you observed. Discuss the utility of the disability-adjusted life
year (DALY) measure as a composite measure of health. Why is the DALY helpful given
the different categories of Communicable, Noncommunicable, and Injury when it comes to
comparing mortality and morbidity?
Utilizing the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) compare feature on the Institute for Health
Metrics and Evaluations (2020), I compared the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
which is of low socio-democratic index to Australia, which is of high socio-economic index.
The primary causes of death in the DRC were due HIV 14.32% of total DALYs, neonatal
causes 7.67% of total DALYs and Malaria 6.27%. The DRC is the largest country in Africa
and has been the site of several civil wars dating back to 1964 with some conflicts still going
on today. This war is estimated to have claimed more than five million lives and has a
practically non-functional government and a devasted economy (Gettleman, J 2012). In
comparison to the DRC, Australia is highly developed and is the world’s fourteenth largest
economy and the tenth highest per capita income (Wikipedia 2020).
The disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) makes it easier to compare the impact of
various diseases on early death and morbidity. DALYs take into consideration the years of
life lost due to a disease plus the length of disability caused by the disease, thereby leveling
the playing field when attempting to compare one disease to another, the smaller the DALY
the better (The DALY show 2014).
References
Australia. (2020, May 27).
Response Post
Response Post 2
As utilized in the above post, the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluations on the
Global Burden of Disease (GBD) presently ranks heart disease as the leading cause of mortality
in America with 30% of all the country’s deaths credited to CVD, which, in this case, will be
compared to Ghana. Around 40% of the U.S.U.S. populace will have some CVD by 2030 and,
for the most part, affects African Americans, who represent about half (46%) of the diagnosed
cases. In America, CVD mainly affects individuals between the ages of 45 and 54, with men
being at more danger of developing heart failure and stroke earlier in life than women (Keates et
al. 2017). As outlined by the author, Africa still experiences high cases of communicable
diseases such as malaria and HIV, but presently higher numbers of non-communicable diseases
such as CVD are being recorded. In Ghana, deaths resulting from CVD are mostly recorded
among individuals somewhere in the range of 30 to 69 years old, a ten year age difference as
seen in North America (Keates et al. 2017). A vast extent of the CVD victims is moderately aged
individuals in Ghana compared to more elderly persons in the U.SU.S.
DALYs provide indicators that summarize the well-being of a populace and give
equivalent proportions of a populace disease burden, which are progressively crucial apparatuses
for healthcare policy provisions. Policies must be founded on proof of illness patterns, risk
factors, and viable alternative mediations.
Response Post 3
References
Keates, A. K., Mocumbi, A. O., Ntsekhe, M., Sliwa, K., & Stewart, S. (2017). Cardiovascular
disease in Africa: epidemiological profile and challenges. Nature Reviews Cardiology,
14(5), 273.