80771
                    Global Burden of Disease: Generating Evidence, Guiding Policy
                    Main Findings from the Europe and Central Asia Regional Edition


Substantial progress has been made in postponing death
between 1970 and 2010
Across the region, each country increased its average age of
death. Great variation exists, however, with Turkey
demonstrating the greatest gain (35.7 years) and Belarus
showing the smallest improvement (5.4 years).


Declines in mortality rates largely varied by age, with
greatest improvements for young children
Death rates for children between 1 and 4 years old declined
by about 80% between 1970 and 2010. Women 55 to 59 saw
the least improvement (a decrease of 5%), while men
between 45 and 59 experienced about a 10% rise.


Premature death and disability caused by
most communicable diseases and newborn
conditions have greatly declined
Between 1990 and 2010, the region has
succeeded in decreasing premature death
and disability, also known as healthy years
lost, from lower respiratory infections and
preterm birth complications; however,
these conditions are still among the top
five causes of disease burden for
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.


HIV/AIDS is rapidly rising in the region
HIV/AIDS caused 7,339% more healthy
years lost in 2010 than in 1990, reflecting
how the epidemic is taking hold of the
region. In the Ukraine, HIV/AIDS is now the
third-leading cause of premature death and
disability, up from 161st.


Non-communicable diseases are now the
leading causes of premature death and
disability in Europe and Central Asia
Between 1990 and 2010, healthy years lost
from causes like ischemic heart disease and
cirrhosis increased in the region. Russia
experienced a 176% increase in cirrhosis.


Road injuries result in fewer healthy years
lost for most countries in the region
Healthy years lost from road injuries
decreased by 28% between 1990 and
2010; however, progress was not universal
across countries in the region (ranging from a
62% decrease in Latvia to a 26% rise in Montenegro).
Disease burden driven by risk factors for
communicable diseases has substantially
declined
Much progress has been made for
potentially avoidable risk factors like
ambient particulate matter pollution and
household air pollution, such that their
burdens declined between 40% and 70%
from 1990 to 2010. Nonetheless, these risk
factors remain among some of the leading
contributors of disease burden in
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Potentially preventable behavioral risk
factors are rapidly contributing to greater
disease burden over time
Risk factors associated with lifestyles, such
as alcohol use and high body mass index,
contributed to far more healthy years lost
in 2010 than in 1990. During this time,
Turkmenistan saw a 366% rise in disease
burden from alcohol use.

GBD results allow countries to explore
areas of success and identify areas of
improvement relative to other countries
within the region
Benchmarking exercises (like the one to the
right) can show rates of premature
mortality ranked relative to the region’s
average and highlight the best (green) and
worst (red) performers across the
conditions that cause the most premature
mortality in the region.

Across all countries and diseases, Serbia,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro
generally performed the best. Kazakhstan
and Kyrgyzstan had the most conditions for
which they performed significantly worse.

For most communicable diseases, countries
such as Tajikistan consistently performed
worse than the rest of the region. However,
more variation took place for non-
communicable diseases. Countries like
Russia and Moldova had significantly higher
rates of premature mortality from ischemic
heart disease, while several countries, such
as Romania, experienced significantly
greater rates of premature mortality from
cirrhosis than the rest of the region.