CA18218 - European Burden of Disease Network (burden-eu)

What are the most relevant diseases in a country? Which risk factors are the strongest contributors to disease and death? How is the impact of different diseases evolving over time, and how does it compare between countries and within subnational units? As the need for prioritising the use of available resources constantly increases, a timely, sound and comprehensive answer to these fundamental questions is more than ever needed to inform public health decision making. Driven by the impact of the Global Burden of Disease study, several researchers and national and international health institutes have adopted the burden of disease approach to address these questions.

The complexity of the burden of disease approach however resulted in major disparities in research capacity across Europe. The burden-eu COST Action will address current challenges by 1) stimulating interaction between existing efforts, 2) supporting technical capacity building at country level, 3) providing a platform to support methodological advances, and 4) addressing the need for an actionable understanding of the process underlying knowledge translation.

The Action will have an interwoven structure of 3 vertical and 2 horizontal pillars. The vertical pillars focus on specific burden of disease applications – i.e., non-communicable diseases and injuries (WG1), communicable diseases (WG2), and risk factors (WG3). The horizontal pillars focus on cross-cutting and holistic activities – i.e., burden of disease methodology (WG4) and knowledge translation (WG5). While the vertical pillars reflect the current fragmented nature of the burden of disease universe, the horizontal pillars provide the much needed bridge between these different worlds.