The disability-adjusted life year (DALY) is a summary measure of overall disease burden, expressing a year of healthy life lost to a disease, disability or early death as a single number: one DALY equals one lost year of healthy life, and the DALYs a disease imposes on a population are the sum of the years of life lost to premature death (YLL) and the years lived with the disability the disease causes (YLD), so DALY = YLL + YLD. Harvard researchers developed the measure for the World Bank's 1990 Global Burden of Disease Study, conducted jointly with the World Health Organization, and the WHO adopted the method formally in 1996. The measure has drawn criticism for resting on disability weights that critics read as an implicit economic measure of a person's lost productive capacity; its defenders respond that the weights are built from the disability's effect on a person's life in general rather than on ability to work. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
First Described YearSourced to the subject's own account First Described EraSourced to the subject's own account1990, developed by Harvard University for the World Bank as part of the Global Burden of Disease Study led by Christopher J. L. Murray and Alan Lopez; the World Health Organization adopted the method in 1996 1 Concept ClassSourced to the subject's own accountBurden of Disease Measure 1 FAQs
What is a DALY?
A disability-adjusted life year (DALY) is one lost year of healthy life: one year lost to premature death, or one year lived with a disability or illness, counted the same way regardless of which. Researchers add up years of life lost to early death (YLL) and years lived with disability (YLD) to get the DALYs a disease costs a population, which is what lets health planners compare very different problems, a fatal disease against a disabling but survivable one, on one shared scale.
Connections
Associated With
Both are summary health-burden measures combining length and quality or severity of life into one number; DALYs measure burden lost, QALYs measure healthy years gained.
Developed By
Source Wikipedia: Global Burden of Disease Study
In Branch
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Disability-Adjusted Life Year
WikipediaLead section
A disability-adjusted life year (DALY) is a measure of overall disease burden, representing a year lost due to ill-health, disability, or early death.
Criticism section
based not on a person's ability to work, but rather on the effects of the disability on the person's life in general.
- History section, development for the World Bank
History and usage section
The concept was developed by Harvard University for the World Bank in 1990. The World Health Organization subsequently adopted the method in 1996 as part of the Ad hoc Committee on Health Research "Investing in Health Research & Development" report.
View the Source Wikipedia: Global Burden of Disease Study
WikipediaDeveloped By: Launch of the Global Burden of Disease Study, History sectionQuote, Developed By: Launch of the Global Burden of Disease Study, History section
It also introduced the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) as a new metric to quantify the burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors, to aid comparisons.
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