Overview:

At the turn of the 20th century, the average woman born in the United States could expect to live for 51 years. Fast-forward one hundred years and the average life expectancy of an American woman is closer to 80 years. Today, a girl born in Sierra Leone can expect to live less than an American girl could 100 years ago; life expectancy in Sierra Leone is a shocking 41 years. It goes without saying that political, social, economic determinants of health all drive this vastly heterogeneous and complex burden of disease.

The focus of this lecture, then, is to highlight the salient features of the global burden of disease including its distribution and changing patterns of over time. Students will receive an overview of the burden of disease, explore the current data on disease prevalence and impact, as well as introduce a discussion of future directions for the study of the global burden of disease.

Key Objectives:

• Describe the major diseases and risk factors that contribute to the global burden of disease across the world, examining the prevalence of trends based on income groups
• Distinguish between various global burden of disease measurements, recognizing the strengths, limitations, and criticisms of the most widely used instruments