Dr. Tamás Joó, Vice President of HMA, was co-author of the article published in the April 2023 issue of eClinical Medicine. The study, an international collaboration, focuses on chronic respiratory diseases, which, in terms of prevention, control, and treatment, are among the non-communicable diseases for which the UN plans to reduce premature mortality by one-third by 2030.
As part of the GBD 2019 study, this study provides updated estimates of mortality, disability, prevalence, and incidence of CRDs, including COPD, asthma, pneumoconiosis, interstitial lung disease, and pulmonary sarcoidosis from 1990-2019 in 21 GBD regions encompassing 204 countries and territories, by age, sex, and Socio-demographic Index (SDI). The DALYs and deaths attributed to potentially modifiable behavioral, environmental, occupational, and metabolic risk factors are also reported. The study is the first report published by the GBD Collaborator Network reporting the global and regional burden of sub-causes of pneumoconiosis, i.e., silicosis, asbestosis, coal worker’s pneumoconiosis, and other pneumoconiosis. Furthermore, this is the first cycle of GBD investigating the burden due to non-optimal temperature, which accentuates the potential role of climate change in disability and deaths from CRDs.
Results provided in this study reflect the impacts of the so far adopted strategies and shed light on the future location-specific policies that need to be established for reducing the burden resulting from CRDs by identifying the populations with the highest burden and the most influential risk factors. The high burden of deaths and disabilities from CRDs in low-middle-income countries emphasizes the crucial role of prevention, raising public awareness, specialized respiratory care training for healthcare providers, and enhancing access to diagnostic tools as well as treatments in these countries. Since smoking was the primary risk factor responsible for deaths and DALYs from CRDs, full enforcement of tobacco control programs is imperative in future policies. Global strategies for improving air quality and limiting occupational hazards are critical steps in achieving the third UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Read the full article here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(23)00113-X/fulltext