Movendi, Media Release - October 2020
Movendi International statement in reaction to latest findings of the Global Burden of Disease study 2019
The Global Burden of Disease study for 2019 led by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation and published in The Lancet has found that failure in tackling preventable non-communicable diseases has made the world more vulnerable to COVID-19. The study also highlights worrying data about alcohol’s contribution to the global burden of disease.
While global healthy life expectancy – the number of years a person can expect to have good health – has increased between 1990 and 2019, it has not risen as much as overall life expectancy in 198 of the 204 countries assessed. This indicates that people are living more years in poor health.
Disability, rather than early death, has become an increasingly large share of the global disease burden – rising from around a fifth (21%) of total burden in 1990 to more than a third (34%) in 2019.
Over the past decade, large and worrying increases have been noted in exposure to several highly preventable risks including alcohol use, other drug use, obesity and high blood sugar. These risks contribute heavily to the growing NCD burden in the world.
Alcohol remains one of the leading risk factors contributing to the global burden of disease.
- Alcohol is the eighth leading preventable risk factor for disease.
- The contribution of alcohol to the global disease burden has been increasing year by year from 2.6% of DALYs* in 1990 to 3.7% of DALYs in 2019.
- In high income countries alcohol use is the second fasted growing risk factor and in LMICs it is the fourth fastest rising risk factor.
- Alcohol is the second largest risk factor for disease burden in the age group 10-24 years.
- Alcohol is the largest risk factor for disease burden in the group 25-49 years.