Comparison of the burden of digestive diseases between China and the United States from 1990 to 2019

Abstract

IntroductionChina has experienced unprecedented transformations unseen in a century and is gradually progressing toward an emerging superpower. The epidemiological trends of digestive diseases in the United States (the US) have significant prescient effects on China.MethodsWe extracted data on 18 digestive diseases from the Global Burden of Diseases 2019 Data Resource. Linear regression analysis conducted by the JoinPoint software assessed the average annual percentage change of the burden. We performed subgroup analyses based on sex and age group.ResultsIn 2019, there were 836.01 and 180.91 million new cases of digestive diseases in China and the US, causing 1558.01 and 339.54 thousand deaths. The age-standardized incidence rates of digestive diseases in China and the US were 58417.87/100,000 and 55018.65/100,000 respectively, resulting in age-standardized mortality rates of 81.52/100,000 and 60.88/100,000. The rates in China annually decreased by 2.149% for mortality and 2.611% for disability-adjusted life of year (DALY). The mortality and DALY rates of the US, respectively, had average annual percentage changes of −0.219 and −0.251. Enteric infections and cirrhosis and other chronic liver diseases accounted for the highest incidence and prevalence in both counties, respectively. The burden of multiple digestive diseases exhibited notable sex disparities. The middle-old persons had higher age-standardized prevalence rates.ConclusionChina bore a greater burden of digestive diseases, and the evolving patterns were more noticeable. Targeted interventions and urgent measures should be taken in both countries to address the specific burden of digestive diseases based on their different epidemic degree.