Air pollution adversely affects health in much of the world. Outdoor air pollution has several components, including various gases as well as tiny particles of solids or liquids that are suspended in the air, often called ambient particulate matter. Ambient particulate matter pollution is a major cause of premature death and ill health worldwide.
Alcohol use is a well-known risk factor for certain conditions, such as cirrhosis of the liver, fetal alcohol syndrome, and injuries related to drunk driving. Alcohol consumption can also contribute to chronic illnesses like heart disease, stroke, and some cancers. Interpersonal violence, self-harm (suicide), and unintentional injuries can also be fueled by alcohol.
Knowing the patterns and trends in causes of death by age and sex in a population is critical to understanding how to target interventions to maximize population health. Less than half of the world’s population has their births and deaths recorded in a vital registration system, leaving millions whose cause of death is unknown.
Many countries have made great strides in reducing child mortality. Yet, every year millions of children still die before their fifth birthday. View these trends using our GBD Compare data visualization.
It is well known that what we eat influences our health, but how much disease burden can be attributed to diet, and what components of our diet are most harmful? The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study provides some of the answers to these questions by tracking risk factors as well as diseases and injuries. GBD estimates now include over 80 different risk factors, including dietary risks.
Proven interventions can improve population health only if they reach those who need them. IHME's Impact Evaluation research develops new and improved methods to evaluate the impact of programs or interventions based on empirical evidence, and conducts impact evaluations to determine the effect a health program had on a target population.
New findings related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were released in a scientific paper, a data visualization tool, and a report produced in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
IHME’s Health Financing research tracks different financial streams to estimate DAH from 1990 to the current year, along with disease-specific spending and future spending projections to assess the potential for gains in health service coverage and improved health outcomes.
In most of the world, disease burden is shifting toward non-communicable diseases and injuries and is less driven by infectious illnesses. Many countries have seen significant declines in HIV/AIDS, but success has varied across regions and countries. Although the epidemic peaked in magnitude in 2005, more than 35 million people are living with HIV worldwide.
Maternal health encompasses the health of women during and just after pregnancy, a time when women are at risk of complications and even death.
Without high-quality, timely data, selecting the most effective interventions and policy options to address a population’s health needs can be impossible. Primary data collection (PDC) helps to fill critical information gaps for decision-making and serves to strengthen existing health information systems.
Among risk factors, tobacco use is one of the most clearly damaging to health. Smoking contributes to a variety of non-communicable diseases, including cancer, heart disease, stroke, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes. The greatest health risks occur in countries where smoking is pervasive and where smokers consume a large quantity of cigarettes.
To understand and address the great disparities in health and health spending across the United States – a country spending more on health care than any other – IHME measures health throughout the US, using our library of health data, the world’s largest and most comprehensive, and a global collaborator network of more than 3,500 physicians, researchers, policymakers, and analysts.