Global Health and the Global Burden of Disease
In this new era of global health in which delivering care has become a reality, it is important to understand the terms used to describe the health of populations, such as incidence, prevalence, morbidity, and mortality. As well as to be able to describe the concepts such as the burden of disease in a population, the quantity and impact of diseases that affect the health of populations, and the epidemiologic shifts within a society. This chapter reviews these key terms and concepts as well as the creation of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) project, launched in 1990 at the World Health Organization. The GBD project measures and estimates the disease burden in countries on a regular basis. These data are critical to built health systems with sufficient inputs to address the entirety of the disease burden and achieve universal health coverage.