Abstract
BackgroundBurden of disease is a joint measure of mortality and morbidity which makes it easier to compare health problems in which these two components enjoy different degrees of relative importance. The objective of this study is ascertaining the burden of disease due to cancer in Spain via the calculation of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).MethodsDALYs are the sum of years of life lost due to premature mortality and years lost due to disability. World Health Organization methodology and the following sources of data were used: the Mortality Register and Princeton Model Life Table for Years of life lost due to premature mortality and population, incidence estimates (Spanish tumour registries and fitting of generalized linear mixed models), duration (from data of survival in Spain from the EUROCARE-3 study and fitting of Weibull distribution function) and disability (weights published in the literature) for Years lost due to disability.ResultsThere were 828,997 DALYs due to cancer (20.5 DALYs/1,000 population), 61% in men. Of the total, 51% corresponded to lung, colorectal, breast, stomach and prostate cancers. Mortality (84% of DALYs) predominated over disability. Subjects aged under 20 years accounted for 1.6% and those aged over 70 years accounted for 30.1% of DALYs.ConclusionLung, colorectal and breast cancers are responsible for the highest number of DALYs in Spain. Even if the burden of disease due to cancer is predominantly caused by mortality, some cancers have a significant weight of disability. Information on 2000 burden of disease due to cancer can be useful to assess how it has evolved over time and the impact of medical advances on it in terms of mortality and disability.
Highlights
Burden of disease is a joint measure of mortality and morbidity which makes it easier to compare health problems in which these two components enjoy different degrees of relative importance
Lung, colorectal and breast cancers are responsible for the highest number of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in Spain
Disabilityadjusted life years (DALYs) are used as a measure of Burden of disease (BoD). This summary indicator represents the number of years of healthy life lost due to a disease or risk factor. It was first employed in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study undertaken by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Harvard University [2] in 1996; since DALYs have been used to study BoD at national level [3,4,5,6,7,8]
Summary
Burden of disease is a joint measure of mortality and morbidity which makes it easier to compare health problems in which these two components enjoy different degrees of relative importance. Burden of disease (BoD) is a measure of population health which takes into account mortality and morbidity due to different diseases and injuries [1]. Disabilityadjusted life years (DALYs) are used as a measure of BoD This summary indicator represents the number of years of healthy life lost due to a disease or risk factor. It was first employed in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study undertaken by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Harvard University [2] in 1996; since DALYs have been used to study BoD at national level [3,4,5,6,7,8]. DALYs due to tobacco related cancers are needed to calculate DALYs due to this exposure, and to estimate the potential health gain expected from interventions that reduce tobacco consumption
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