The primary causes of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) from countries with different social demographic index levels or from different economic regions differ significantly. The United States and Haiti are two countries from different economic regions. The US can therefore be classified as a high-income developed country while Haiti is a low-income developing country. In the US, which is a high-income country, the primary causes of disability-adjusted life-years include cardiovascular diseases, mental health conditions, respiratory diseases, and lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and cancer (IHME, 2021). For instance, in the US, ischemic heart disease accounts for at least 8.09% of total DALYs, while diabetes accounts for at least 4.01%. In contrast, in Haiti, which is a low-income country, the primary causes of DALY’s include neonatal disorders, lower respiratory infection, diarrhea diseases, HIV AIDS, interpersonal violence, road injuries, dietary iron deficiency, protein energy malnutrition, among others (IHME, 2021).
Identify three social or political-economic differences that help explain the differences you observed.
Comparing the primary causes of DALYs in a high-income country such as the US and a low-income country such as Haiti, there is evidence that there are social and political differences that can help explain the differences. These differences include income levels, infrastructural development, and access to healthcare services (Hay et al., 2017). In the US, citizens have a generally higher income that allows them to enjoy a higher standard of living. Such communities are therefore able to avoid DALYs that may result from low standards of living, such as protein-energy malnutrition and iron deficiency. In contrast, in Haiti, citizens have a low income which makes it difficult to meet basic needs such as nutrition, exposing the population to DALYs related to nutritional deficiency (Karambizi et al., 2021).In the US, the government has also invested heavily in infrastructure, including safe environments and access to health care services which plays a significant role in reducing DALYs that relate to the environment. In contrast, in Haiti, the lack of infrastructure and the lack of access to healthcare services increases the prevalence of environmentally associated DALYs.
Discuss the utility of the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) measure as a composite measure of health.
The DALY is used to evaluate the overall burden of disease by examining and trying to quantify the years that individuals might lose due to disability or premature mortality. The main role of DALY is to try and quantify the global burden of disease (Von der Lippe et al., 2020).
Why is the DALY helpful given the different categories of Communicable, Noncommunicable, and Injury when it comes to comparing mortality and morbidity?
The DALY helps in comparing mortality and morbidity and indicating the areas that various authorities, including government and global organizations, need to focus on when trying to improve the health of communities (Von der Lippe et al., 2020).
References
Hay, S. I., Abajobir, A. A., Abate, K. H., Abbafati, C., Abbas, K. M., Abd-Allah, F., Abdulkader, R. S., Abdulle, A. M., Abebo, T. A., Abera, S. F., Aboyans, V., Abu-Raddad, L. J., Ackerman, I. N., Adedeji, I. A., Adetokunboh, O., Afshin, A., Aggarwal, R., Agrawal, S., Agrawal, A., . . . Murray, C. J. L. (2017). Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 333 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE) for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. The Lancet, 390(10100), 1260–1344. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(17)32130-x
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