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Disease burden initiative in India

The India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative was launched in October 2015. It is a collaboration between the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), and senior experts and stakeholders from about 100 institutions across India.

15% of the total disease burden in 2016 was due to child and maternal undernutrition.
10% of the total disease burden in 2016 was caused by air pollution levels.
66.9 years was the life expectancy for males and 70.3 for females in 2016.
39% for the age-standardized DALY rate was the highest increase among major non-communicable diseases in 2016.

About

The India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative (DBI) is a collaboration between the India Council on Medical Research (ICMR), the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), IHME, and a number of other key stakeholders in India including academic experts and government agencies. Formalized in October 2015, this collaboration produced the first comprehensive report on subnational disease burden for Indian states, providing useful inputs for the data-driven and decentralized health planning specific to each state recommended by the National Health Policy of India. Currently, the collaboration is working on deepening knowledge exchange and technical skill building among colleagues in India. 


About ICMR 
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is the apex government body in India for the formulation, coordination, and promotion of biomedical and health research. It is one of the oldest medical research bodies in the world. Besides the headquarters in New Delhi, ICMR has 32 research institutes, centres, and units across India. ICMR funds both intramural and extramural research in India. The priorities of ICMR coincide with the national health priorities and have the goal of reducing the total burden of disease and promoting the health and well-being of India’s population. As part of this agenda, ICMR is interested in improving the estimates of disease burden and risk factors in India, especially at the subnational levels, for better health planning, policy framing, and fund allocation. 

About PHFI 
The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) is a premier public health institution in India with presence across the country. It collaborates with multiple constituencies, including Indian and international academia, state and central governments, multi- and bilateral agencies, and civil society groups. The vision of PHFI is to strengthen India’s public health institutional and systems capability and provide knowledge to achieve better health outcomes for all through strengthening training, research, and policy development in public health. As part of this vision, PHFI has major interest in improving the robustness of subnational disease burden estimates to inform health action and in evaluating the impact of large-scale population health interventions.