141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

283435
Results from the 2010 global burden of disease study and disease control priorities: What do the numbers tell us about surgical conditions?

Monday, November 4, 2013 : 11:00 AM - 11:15 AM

Jaymie Henry, MD, MPH , Surgeons OverSeas (SOS), New York, NY
The 2010 Global Burden of Disease(GBD) study uncovered an epidemiologic shift in disease pattern from communicable to noncommunicable diseases. Although diseases requiring surgical care constitute a significant burden, little awareness exist on their actual magnitude and out of all operations done annually, only 3.5% are performed in the poorest third of the world. Mortality and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for which surgical care plays a major role was reviewed in the GBD study in five major areas guided by the World Bank's Disease Control Priorities (DCP) framework. The proportion of DALYs due to lack of surgery was calculated based on estimates from the DCP. These were compared with traditional infectious disease estimates. In 2010, deaths and DALYs (in millions) due to malignancies (7.98, 188.5); injury (5.07, 278.7); other surgical conditions such as intestinal obstruction, gallbladder and bile duct disease, appendicitis, and hernias (0.29, 8.25); obstetric complications such as obstructed labor, abortion and hemorrhage (0.106, 2.41); and cleft lip and palate (.004, 0.57) were compared with malaria (1.17, 82.7), HIV/AIDS (1.47, 81.5), TB (1.2, 49.4), diarrheal diseases (1.45, 89.5), mental health (0.23, 185), and lower respiratory infections (2.81, 115.2). Deaths and DALYs from injuries were 24.48 and 23.36%, respectively, higher than HIV, TB and malaria combined. Diseases requiring surgical care, particularly injuries, have surpassed most infectious diseases without corresponding health infrastructure to meet the need. More attention needs to be focused on primary and secondary prevention of premature death and disability from lack of surgical care.

Learning Areas:
Clinical medicine applied in public health
Epidemiology
Other professions or practice related to public health
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Describe the 2010 Global Burden of Disease study as it relates to surgical conditions described in the World Bank’s Disease Control Priorities Compare the burden of disease in terms of mortality and disability adjusted life years (DALYs) among surgical conditions and infectious diseases Discuss the differences in disease burden between surgical conditions and infectious diseases Assess the potential implications of differences in surgical and infectious diseases in health policy and management

Keywords: Epidemiology, Developing Countries

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am an international surgical fellow at Surgeons OverSeas (SOS), a group dedicated to increasing surgical capacity in developing countries, lecturer on Global Surgery at UC Berkeley Global Health Course, consultant at WHO Violence and Injury Prevention, and ambassador at the UCSF Institute for Global Orthopedics and Traumatology (IGOT). I obtained my MPH(Epidemiology) at UC Berkeley School of Public Health and have published numerous articles on Global Surgery in peer-reviewed journals.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.