A decade of disease burden analysis in Norway – partnership spotlight on the Norwegian Institute of Public Health’s Centre for Disease Burden
Published June 30, 2025
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) works together with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) to provide a full picture of disease burden in Norway. Their research and policy reports use the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) to provide decision-makers in Norway and the Nordic region with a robust foundation for evidence-based policymaking. The Centre for Disease Burden functions as the Norwegian arm of the GBD, including housing the GBD Collaborating Unit at NIPH dedicated to forecasting the GBD jointly with the Future Health Scenarios team at IHME.
From pilot to powerhouse
Originally established at NIPH as a pilot project in 2015, the Centre for Disease Burden was formally founded in 2016 with a mission to work closely with the GBD study to provide a comprehensive overview of fatal and non-fatal health loss associated with various diseases, injuries, and risk factors for Norway. In 2022, the Centre undertook a new endeavor with NIPH’s Department of Infection Control and the Cause of Death Registry to conduct mortality surveillance to improve emergency preparedness and enhance understanding of long-term mortality trends.
In 2023, a GBD Collaborating Unit was established at NIPH to house a portion of IHME’s Future Health Scenarios (FHS) team. FHS forecasts the global burden of disease and scenarios for all GBD countries and select subnational locations to inform planning and decision-making. The forecasts link drivers of health with health outcomes and provide an improved framework for custom scenarios that can inform planning and scaling of health services.
From data to policy: the work of the NIPH Centre for Disease Burden
The NIPH Centre for Disease Burden is cross-disciplinary and includes members from several departments across the Institute. It partners with the Norwegian government and several Norwegian, Nordic, European, and global research collaborations on disease burden. Analyzing Norwegian disease burden is a central purpose of the Centre, and it works closely with IHME throughout the estimation process. Core activities include identifying and transferring crucial health survey and registry data, reviewing and providing feedback on GBD estimates to ensure quality and accuracy, and conducting novel research based on GBD estimates and Norwegian health data.
The Centre works closely with several GBD teams on using linked Norwegian registry data to improve GBD models on incidence and prevalence of diseases. These findings are used in the creation of policy reports and other tools to support strategic prioritization, planning, evaluation, and evidence-based policymaking across national and local levels. Many areas of policy-relevant research are part of this work, including subnational burden of disease analysis, social inequality of disease burden, forecasting, cost analyses, and others.
Dr. Ann Kristin Knudsen presents to IHME staff about Using GBD national and Subnational results to create health policy (April 2024)
Expanding impact: NIPH’s partnership with IHME and Nordic collaborators
NIPH Centre for Disease Burden has been working closely with IHME since the Centre’s founding. Initial collaboration produced a national analysis of disease burden in 2016, culminating in the 200-page report Disease Burden in Norway 1990–2013, accompanied by a policy-focused summary report. This work was followed by a 2019 study of life expectancy and disease burden in the Nordic countries based on GBD 2017 results and a subnational analysis of burden of disease for all of Norway’s 15 counties, or Fylker, published in 2022.
Following the publication of subnational estimates, policy reports for each of the regions were produced and made available via the NIPH website. These reports were accompanied by a series of seminars and trainings for national and local public health professionals and decision-makers. The policy reports were updated with new results following the release of GBD 2021, and there are plans to do the same for future rounds of GBD. GBD results have been used in publications estimating and forecasting disease-specific health spending, produced by collaboration between NIPH and IHME researchers.
In recent years, the Centre has also taken an active role in creating a closer connection between GBD Collaborators, public health institutions, and universities in the Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland). Supported by IHME, the Centre has organized regular convenings and in-person workshops aimed at strengthening knowledge of the GBD in the region and encouraging regional collaboration. Co-organized with IHME and other public health institutions in the region, these convenings have helped grow the Nordic GBD Collaborator Network, which today includes over 240 collaborators. The Nordic collaboration has helped improve estimates by facilitating data access, detailed reviews of results, and increased use of GBD to inform public health policy in the region.
Championing evidence-based policy
The work of the NIPH Centre for Disease Burden, in partnership with IHME over the past decade, highlights what can be achieved when GBD estimates are applied to public policy. The Centre has been a strong champion for the application of GBD estimates beyond research, including integrating GBD estimates into the decision-making process in Norway through briefings to the Health Minister and policy-relevant white papers, sharing their experiences with neighboring countries, and working to improve the GBD. As we navigate a complex global health landscape, collaboration and innovation have never been more important, and the NIPH Centre for Disease Burden provides an inspiring model for how to collectively address the challenges we face.