The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016: the risk factor assessment study

The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016 (GBD 2016) remains the most comprehensive effort to conduct a population-level comparative risk assessment across countries and risks. Other sources of population-level estimates of risk include WHO and UNICEF reports as well as independent scientific publications. Notable differences in methods and definitions produce variation in results, although in several cases there is general agreement in regional or global patterns. The GBD study remains the only peer-reviewed, comprehensive, and annual assessment of risk factor burden by age, sex, cause, and location for a long time series that complies with the Guidelines for Accurate and Transparent Health Estimates Reporting (GATHER).

By providing estimates over a long time series, this study can monitor risk exposure trends critical to health surveillance. Indeed, the GBD experts worked on the global, regional and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or cluster of risks from 1990 to 2016 in 195 countries around the world.