About the Centre for Disease Burden
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The Centre for Disease Burden's main goal is to describe and understand the health situation in Norway.
Historically, overviews over health loss in the population have primarily focused on areas where we have the best data, namely mortality, while the incidence and significance of diseases that we live with have been given less attention. The Centre for Disease Burden aims to provide a comprehensive overview of both the fatal and non-fatal health loss associated with various diseases, injuries, and risk factors in Norway. The Centre is cross-disciplinary, and has members from several departments across the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH).
Disease Burden Analyses
Disease burden analyses are a core activity of the Centre, and the Centre collaborates closely with the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD). GBD calculates the disease burden as the sum of fatal and non-fatal health loss in a population. This is done for most countries worldwide, including Norway and all Norwegian counties. The Centre for Disease Burden identifies and transfer Norwegian data to the GBD, engages in rigorous quality assurance for estimates for Norway, analyses GBD estimates for Norway and Nordic countries, and conducts independent disease burden calculations using Norwegian registry and survey data. The resultant figures are used in policy documents, health economic calculations, and serve as support tools in the strategic prioritisation, planning and evaluation of health services, preventive measures, and research.
Forecasting the disease burden
Forecasts of future health scenarios are highly warranted for planning and scaling of the health services, the welfare state and public health work, and is a key focus at the Centre. In the fall of 2023, a GBD Collaborating Unit was established at NIPH. This unit will work on creating scenarios for the future development of disease burden for the GBD project.
Mortality surveillance
Since the fall of 2022, the Centre for Disease Burden has also been responsible for monitoring total mortality in Norway, collaborating closely with, among others, the Department of Infection Control and the Cause of Death Registry at NIPH. Mortality surveillance is crucial in order to detect and assess acute events of significance to public health and essential for emergency preparedness. Furthermore, continuous mortality surveillance is a pre-requisite to better understand long-term trends in mortality, including the determinants.
International Collaboration
The Centre for Disease Burden participates in several Norwegian, Nordic, European, and global research collaborations on disease burden. In addition to the Global Burden of Disease, the Centre is actively involved in the Centre for Global Health Inequalities Research (CHAIN) network and the Cost Action European Burden of Disease Network, as well as the BEST-COST network. The Centre also plays a leading role in the Nordic Burden of Disease Network. Among our most important collaborators are Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), Karolinska Institute, University of Reykjavik, Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare, University of Aarhus, the Danish National Institute of Public Health, the Danish Cancer Society Research Center, Sciensano, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Research Areas
In addition to tasks related to the collaboration with the GBD, the presentation of national and county-specific disease burden, and monitoring total mortality, researchers affiliated with the Centre conduct research within several different thematic areas:
- Social Inequality in Disease Burden: There are large social health inequalities in Norway. Which diseases and risk factors are the largest contributors to these differences, and how do they vary over time, between countries, and across Norwegian municipalities and counties?
- Forecasting the disease burden: How is the disease burden expected to evolve in the future? And how may various public health measures impact this development?
- Costs associated with disease burden: Which diseases are the most costly in terms of healthcare utilization and productivity loss in Norway?
- Mortality in Norway and in the Nordic region during the pandemic: How did total mortality progress in Norway and in the Nordic region during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what has been the post-pandemic trend?
- Garbage codes in the Cause of Death Registry: How has the use of so-called garbage codes – codes that provide little or no information about the underlying cause of death – in reports to the Cause of Death Registry changed over time?
- Health loss due to noise and pollution: What is the health loss associated with noise and pollution, how is it linked to social health inequalities, and what costs does it impose on society?