BeBOD estimates of mortality, years of life lost, prevalence, years lived with disability, and disability-adjusted life years for 38 causes, 2013-2020

Belgian National Burden of Disease Study

Estimates of the burden of disease

Causes of death

Our estimates are based on the official causes of death database compiled by Statbel. We first map the ICD-10 codes of the underlying causes of death to the Global Burden of Disease cause list, consisting of 131 unique causes of deaths. Next, we perform a probabilistic redistribution of ill-defined deaths to specific causes, to obtain a specific cause of death for each deceased person.

Years of Life Lost

In addition to counting the number of deaths, we also calculate Years of Life Lost (YLLs) as a measure of premature mortality. YLLs correspond to the life expectancy at the age of death, and therefore give a higher weight to deaths occurring at younger ages. We calculate YLLs using the Global Burden of Disease reference life table, which represents the theoretical maximum number of years that people can expect to live.

Prevalence

Our estimates are based on the GBD cause list for morbidity by IHME. We first select for each of the 38 causes, the most suitable local data source as described in the protocol. Next, we calculate the prevalence by year, region, age, and sex, to obtain a prevalence for each of the included diseases.

Years Lived with Disability

In addition to calculating the number of prevalent cases, we also calculate Years Lived with Disability (YLDs) as a measure of morbidity. YLDs are calculated as the product of the number of prevalent cases with the disability weight (DW), averaged over the different health states of the disease. The DWs reflect the relative reduction in quality of life, on a scale from 0 (perfect health) to 1 (death). We calculate YLDs using the Global Burden of Disease DWs.

Disability-Adjusted Life Years

Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) are a measure of overall disease burden, representing the healthy life years lost due to morbidity and mortality. DALYs are calculated as the sum of YLLs and YLDs for each of the considered diseases.