80845
                     Global Burden of Disease: Generating Evidence, Guiding Policy
                             Main Findings from the South 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 the Maldives
demonstrating the greatest gain (about 42 years) and
Pakistan showing the smallest improvement (13 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 84% between 1970 and 2010, while mortality rates saw
the least improvement for people over 80 years old (30%
and 15% decreases for women and men, respectively).


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


HIV/AIDS is rapidly rising in the region
HIV/AIDS caused 4,753% more healthy
years lost in 2010 than in 1990, reflecting
how the epidemic is taking hold of the
region. In India, HIV/AIDS became the
15th leading cause of disease burden in
2010, up from 114th.


Non-communicable diseases are now the
leading causes of premature death and
disability in South Asia
Between 1990 and 2010, healthy years
lost from causes like stroke, ischemic
heart disease, depression, and diabetes
increased between 50% and 100% in the
region. Sri Lanka experienced a 211%
increase in diabetes.


Road injuries have taken a growing toll on health in most countries
Healthy years lost from road injuries increased 58% between 1990 and 2010, with substantial country variation (ranging from a
20% decrease in the Maldives to a 112% rise in Afghanistan).
Disease burden driven by risk factors for
communicable diseases has substantially
declined
Much progress has been made for potentially
avoidable risk factors like household air
pollution, childhood underweight, and
suboptimal breastfeeding, such that their
burdens declined between 30% and 70% from
1990 to 2010. Nonetheless, these risk factors
remain among the leading contributors of
disease burden in Nepal and Pakistan.

Potentially preventable behavioral risk
factors are rapidly contributing to greater
disease burden over time
Risk factors associated with lifestyles, such as
dietary risks and high body mass index,
contributed to far more healthy years lost in
2010 than in 1990. During this time,
Bangladesh saw a 749% rise in disease burden
from high body mass index.

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 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, higher-
income countries like the Maldives and Sri
Lanka generally performed the best. India and
Afghanistan had the most conditions for
which they performed significantly worse.

For many communicable diseases, countries
such as India and Pakistan consistently
performed worse than the rest of the region.
However, more variation took place for non-
communicable diseases. Countries like
Bangladesh and Nepal had significantly higher
rates of premature mortality from chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), while
Sri Lanka experienced significantly greater
rates of premature mortality from self-harm
than the rest of the region.