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Measuring the burden of injury

Professor R A Lyons, Centre for Health Information, Research and Evaluation (CHIRAL), School of Medicine, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK; r.a.lyons@swansea.ac.uk

Accepted 8 December 2007

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The political response to any given health problem is strongly influenced by two particular metrics: the scale of the problem and the effectiveness of acceptable counter measures. Injury prevention advocates need information on the comprehensive burden of injuries to be able to effectively argue for greater investment in interventions that have been shown to be cost-effective. Where high-grade evidence is lacking, investment in research is also needed to develop and test the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of new interventions and strategies. Thus, accurate and comprehensive measurement of the burden of injury is an essential component of injury prevention.

The "burden of disease" concept was introduced by the World Health Organization in 1996 in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study.¹ This approach involved combining measurement of disability in those surviving an injury with excess mortality after injury. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost consequent to illness or injury was the metric chosen . . . [Full text of this article]