European Burden of Disease Network

Burden of disease (BoD) methodology is complex and highly data intensive, which has led to major disparities across researchers and nations in their capacity to perform BoD studies, both to interpret the soundness of available BoD estimates, or to advocate for the use of BoD methods. Since its inception, the Scottish Burden of Disease (SBoD) study has been actively involved in sharing experiences, learning, and networking with other teams conducting national burden of disease studies across the world. In 2016, we held a workshop in Edinburgh with colleagues from the World Health Organization (WHO), England, The Netherlands, Norway, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland (the workshop programme and presentations are available in our archive).

To address these challenges, the SBoD study, with other colleagues across Europe, are active participants in a European Union COST action (EU burden of disease network) that serves as technical platform for integrating and strengthening capacity in burden of disease assessment across Europe and beyond. To achieve this mission, the Action is cooperating with the European Burden of Disease Network of the WHO Regional Office for Europe. Further information on this COST Action network is available at this website.

The COST Action European Burden of Disease Network has the following objectives:

Research coordination objectives

  • To bring together experts and expertise across different domains, transforming the currently scattered burden of disease landscape into one transnational team.
  • To compare and harmonize methods and approaches for burden of disease assessment.
  • To identify critical knowledge and data gaps, and set up studies for which international coordination is needed.
  • To serve as an advocacy group for the burden of disease approach in Europe.

Capacity building objectives

  • To build and increase capacity in burden of disease assessment across Europe. The Action will have an explicit focus on the involvement of specific target groups, including Early Career Investigators, the under-represented gender, and teams and countries with less capacity in the field of burden of disease.
  • To serve as a technical platform where knowledge and expertise can be shared among established and emerging researchers.
  • To promote an interdisciplinary approach that integrates knowledge translation in the classical burden of disease framework.

Key publications

Wyper GMA, Devleesschauwer B, Mathers CD, McDonald SA, Speybroeck N. Years of life lost methods must remain fully equitable and accountable. European Journal of Epidemiology. 2022;37:215–216. doi: 10.1007/s10654-022-00846-9

Pires SM, Wyper GMA, Wengler A, Peñalvo JL, Haneef R, Moran D, Cuschieri S, Redondo HG, De Pauw R, McDonald SA, Moon L, Shedrawy J, Pallari E, Charalampous P, Devleesschauwer B, von Der Lippe E. Burden of disease of COVID-19: strengthening the collaboration for national studies. Frontiers in Public Health. 2022;10:907012. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.907012

Haneef R, Schmidt J, Gallay A,. Devleesschauwer B, Grant I, Rommel A, Wyper GMA, Van Oyen H, Hilderink H, Ziese T, Newton J. Recommendations to plan a national burden of disease study. Archives of Public Health. 2021;79:126. doi: 10.1186/s13690-021-00652-x.

Wyper GMA, Assuncao R, Fletcher E, Gourley M, Grant I, Haagsma JA, Hilderink H, Idavain J, Lesnik T, von der Lippe E, Majdan M, Mccartney G, Santric-Milicevic M, Pallari E, Pires SM, Plass D, Porst M, Santos JV, de Haro Moro MT, Stockton DL, Devleesschauwer B. The increasing significance of disease severity in a burden of disease framework. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. 2021. doi: 10.1177/14034948211024478.

von der Lippe E, Devleesschauwer B, Gourley M, Haagsma J, Hilderink H, Porst M, Wengler A, Wyper G, Grant I. Reflections on key methodological decisions in national burden of disease assessments. Archives of Public Health. 2020;78:137. doi: 10.1186/s13690-020-00519-7.

Wyper GMA, Grant I, Fletcher E, McCartney G, Fischbacher C, Stockton DL. How do world and European standard populations impact burden of disease studies? A case study of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in Scotland. Archives of Public Health. 2020:78;1. doi: 10.1186/s13690-019-0383-8.

Devleesschauwer B, McDonald SA, Speybroeck N, Wyper GMA. Valuing the years of life lost due to COVID-19: the differences and pitfalls. Int J Public Health. 2020;65(6):719-720. doi: 10.1007/s00038-020-01430-2.

Wyper GMA, Grant I, Fletcher E, Chalmers N, McCartney G, Stockton DL. Prioritising the development of severity distributions in burden of disease studies for countries in the European region. Archives of Public Health. 2020;78:3. doi: 10.1186/s13690-019-0385-6.

Wyper GMA, Grant I, Fletcher E, McCartney G, Stockton DL. The impact of worldwide, national and sub-national severity distributions in Burden of Disease studies: A case study of cancers in Scotland. PLoS One. 2019;14(8):e0221026. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0221026.