Study Design

To achieve maximum impact, the project focuses on both improving knowledge and making it useful for actors shaping the terrain of global health. Under the first of its two major objectives, the GBD 2005 Study will produce new estimates of the global burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors. It will revise figures for 1990 given new data and improved techniques and generate new estimates for 2005. Spearheaded by a team of public health researchers from a number of leading research institutions and engaging epidemiological experts in every study region, the project will be collaborative at all levels.

Under its second key objective, the GBD 2005 Study will develop various sets of tools, each tailored to a specific audience, to standardize and broaden the field of burden research and analysis. Through computer-assisted self-instruction and training workshops, new generations of researchers will be schooled in up-to-date methods. Revised computational tools will allow researchers around the world to apply GBD techniques to produce rigorous and systematic burden estimates. Meanwhile, tailored publications will help policymakers and non-research audiences interpret GBD concepts and utilize study results. A comprehensive publication, website, and CD-ROM will guarantee universal access to GBD methods and results.

A Core Team of methodologists will spearhead the study and ensure its steady progress along a 36-month time frame. Composed of senior researchers from the University of Washington, Harvard University, the University of Queensland, Johns Hopkins University, and the WHO, the core team unites the authors of the original study and engages new leaders in the global health field to design and coordinate research.

Carefully selected expert groups in every study region will conduct systematic reviews of incidence and prevalence of disease and disabling sequelae, reporting their figures at defined intervals to core team members. More than 800 experts from around the world are participating in 43 disease expert groups. Responding to critiques and improvements in the field, the new study will make major progress in disability assessment, using new survey instruments to update disability weights and gather data on health states. Consistency checks and peer reviews will occur throughout the study to ensure that estimates of mortality, burden, and risk are systematically and cautiously generated. As an important quality check, the GBD 2005 Study embeds feedback and discourse amongst participants into its design.

Improving the health and wellbeing of the world's population is both morally imperative and essential to stability and progress. The vast energies, technologies, and resources pouring into global health have given us the capacity to fight disease, remedy disability, and address deep health inequalities between populations. The new round of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors will provide the tools and knowledge to unveil the substance of global health and guide the momentum to make truly effective interventions possible.