disability-adjusted life years

Connecting the Dots: The State of U.S. Health, 1990-2010

Posted on September 12th, 2013 by Dr. Francis Collins

Caption: Adapted from Figure 2, The state of US health, 1990-2010: burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors. US Burden of Disease Collaborators. JAMA. 2013 Aug 14;310(6):591-608.

Kudos to the U.S. Burden of Disease Collaborators and their recent report on the state of U.S. health from 1990 to 2010. This team, supported by NIH and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, documented how the incidence of various diseases and injuries has changed over the past two decades in terms of toll they take on Americans’ health and well being. That toll is measured in something called disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), which amounts to the sum of years of life lost due to premature death and years lived with disability.

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