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Over 95% of global population suffer from health problems

Only 4.3% of the world’s population have no health issues, with growth in the aging population potentially playing a part in the significant increase of illness, according to recently released data from The Lancet.

“The implications of our findings are substantial. By extending the [Global Burden of Disease Study] analysis to report the commonly understood measures of morbidity and disability in populations, by age, by sex, by country and over time, this study represents an enormous resource for national, regional, and global policy debates about health priorities, not just to keep people alive well into old age, but to also keep them healthy. Without this health intelligence, large, preventable causes of health loss in populations, particularly mental and behavioral disorders and serious musculoskeletal disorders, have thus far not received the attention that they deserve in the national health debates,” the researchers wrote.

In the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013, researchers evaluated the rates of chronic diseases and injuries, along with their sequelae, which included 35,620 epidemiological data sources on disease and injury from 188 countries from 1990 to 2013.

Results demonstrated that in 2013, only a small proportion, 4.3%, of the population had no health issues. In 2013, the proportion of disability-adjusted life years due years lived with disability was 31.2%, compared with 21.1% in 1990.

A significant correlation was seen between age and severe illnesses, with just 0.03% of adults aged 80 years and over showing no sequelae, compared with 35.9% of children between the ages of 0 and 4 years having no sequelae.

More than 10% of the world’s population was affected with at least one of eight causes of chronic disorders, mostly noncommunicable, including cavities in permanent teeth (2.4 billion), tension headaches (1.6 billion), anemia (1.2 billion), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency trait (1.18 billion), age-related hearing loss (1.23 billion), genital herpes (1.12 billion), migraines (850 million) and ascariasis (800 million).

The leading acute disorders were upper respiratory and diarrheal diseases, which affected more than 2 billion individuals worldwide.

Across all countries, low back pain and major depressive disorder ranked in the top 10 contributors to years lived with disability, resulting in more health loss than diabetes, pulmonary disease and asthma combined. Worldwide, other causes included musculoskeletal, mental and substance use disorders; neurological disorders and chronic respiratory diseases. Sub-Saharan Africa was an exception, with HIV and AIDS being leading causes in the increase of years lived with disabilities.

Significant increases in health loss due to diabetes (136% increase), Alzheimer’s disease (92% increase), medication overuse headache (120% increase) and osteoarthritis (75% increase) were seen from 1990 to 2013.

Of importance, researchers found that rates of years lived with disability are generally decreasing more slowly than mortality rates. The researchers also noted that as the number of individuals living into old age continues to grow, as does the overall population, there will be a substantial increase in the percentage of people living with less-than-ideal health.

“The fact that mortality is declining faster than non-fatal disease and injury prevalence is further evidence of the importance of paying attention to the rising health loss from these leading causes of disability, and not simply focusing on reducing mortality,” study researcher Theo Vos, professor of global health, Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, said in a press release. – by Casey Hower

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.