News

People around the world are living longer, even in some of the poorest countries, but a complex mix of fatal and nonfatal ailments cause a tremendous amount of health loss, according to a new analysis of all major diseases and injuries in 188 countries.

People across the US are living longer but spending more time in ill health as rates of nonfatal diseases and injuries – including low back pain, major depressive disorder, and diabetes – decline more slowly than death rates, according to a new analysis of 301 acute and chronic diseases and injuries in 188 countries.

New cases of virtually all types of cancer are rising in countries globally – regardless of income – but the death rates from cancer are falling in many countries, according to a new analysis of 28 cancer groups in 188 countries.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) released groundbreaking research on educational attainment worldwide on Friday, May 1, at the Population Association of America 2015 Annual Meeting, which draws demographers, sociologists, economists, and public health professionals from all over the world.

Published in April 2015, Epic Measures: One Doctor, Seven Billion Patients tells the story of IHME Director Christopher Murray’s quest to gain a truer understanding of how we live and how we die. 

Globally, the number of deaths due to cardiovascular diseases increased by 41% between 1990 and 2013, climbing from 12.3 million deaths to 17.3 million deaths. Over the same period, death rates within specific age groups dropped by 39%, according to an analysis of data from 188 countries. Death rates from cardiovascular diseases were steady or fell in every region of the world except Western sub-Saharan Africa, where the rates increased.

Life expectancy improved for both men and women in the United States, at an average of 3.5 years gained since 1990. But at the same time a number of diseases, including chronic kidney disease and Alzheimer's disease, claimed more lives in the United States in 2013 than in 1990.

Dr. Rodrigo Guerrero, a Harvard-trained epidemiologist and mayor of Cali, Colombia, is the first winner of the Roux Prize, a new US$100,000 award for turning evidence into health impact and the largest prize of its kind.

New HIV infections dropped by almost one-third from the epidemic peak; TB deaths declined by 3.7% between 2000 and 2013; child deaths from malaria in sub-Saharan Africa have dropped 31.5% in the past decade. Despite major progress, the quality of programs to treat HIV varies widely.

Today, 2.1 billion people – nearly 30% of the world’s population – are either obese or overweight, according to a new, first-of-its kind analysis of trend data from 188 countries. The rise in global obesity rates over the last three decades has been substantial and widespread, presenting a major public health epidemic in both the developed and the developing world.

Since the start of an international effort to address maternal and child mortality, millions of lives have been saved globally, a new study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington shows.