Disease burden in Norway in 2016

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Health Economics

Background:

• Accurate assessment of population health status is crucial for addressing health challenges.
• Norway has historically focused on mortality causes, with less data on morbidity burden, termed non-fatal health loss.
• Understanding non-fatal health loss is essential for comprehensive public health planning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the total disease burden in Norway for the year 2016.
• To analyze the trends in disease burden over the past decade.
• To investigate gender-specific differences in disease burden.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD).
• Quantified non-fatal health loss on a scale comparable to mortality, using years of healthy life lost.
• Calculated the overall disease burden using the disability-adjusted life years (DALY) metric.

Main Results:

• Non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular diseases, cancer, COPD, and dementia were major causes of years of life lost in 2016.
• Non-fatal health loss constituted 52% of the total disease burden (DALYs), with musculoskeletal, mental, and substance use disorders being significant contributors.
• While the burden from causes of years of life lost decreased over the decade, the burden from non-fatal health loss did not show a similar decline.

Conclusions:

• Non-fatal health loss represents a substantial and increasing proportion of the disease burden in Norway.
• This growing burden of non-fatal conditions presents new and significant challenges for the Norwegian healthcare system.
• Future health strategies must address the rising impact of non-fatal health conditions.