The Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 (GBD 2010): estimates and forecasts on diseases, injuries and risk factors

Key words: Global burden, Disability adjusted life years, Years living with disability, Years of life lost, Diseases, Injuries, Risk factors

The Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 (GBD 2010) is the largest ever systematic effort to describe the global distribution and causes of a wide array of major diseases, injuries, and health risk factors. The results show that infectious diseases, maternal and child illness, and malnutrition now cause fewer deaths and less illness than they did twenty years ago. As a result, fewer children are dying every year, but more young and middleaged adults are dying and suffering from diseases and injuries, as non-communicable diseases, such as cancer and heart disease, become the dominant causes of death and disability worldwide. Since 1970, men and women worldwide have gained slightly more than ten years of life expectancy overall, but they spend more years living with injury and illness. Blood pressure is the biggest global risk factor for disease, followed by tobacco, alcohol, and poor diet, but child undernutrition and suboptimal breastfeeding remain a key risk factor in sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia, where reproductive, newborn, and child diseases remain the top causes of mortality.