Burden of Disease
Contents
5.1 Methodology
5.2 Estimated YLDs
5.3 Estimated YLLs
5.4 Estimated DALYs
5.5 Monetary equivalent of DALY burden
Summary
The burden of disease from vision impairment and blindness is a measure of the loss of wellbeing from disability and premature death due to these conditions (intangible costs). The burden of disease is measured using the non-financial metric of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). This are further converted to a financial equivalent using the monetary value of a statistical life year.
In 2010, it was estimated that vision impairment and blindness resulted in 18,537 DALYs in the ROI, including 510 DALYs from premature death due to vision impairment and blindness and 18,027 DALYs from disability due to impaired vision. It is estimated that this burden will rise to 20,804 DALYs by 2015 and 23,465 DALYs by 2020.
In financial equivalent terms, the burden of disease from vision impairment and blindness was estimated to be €1.8 billion in 2010, which is projected to rise to nearly €2.0 billion by 2015 and €2.2 billion by 2020.
This chapter presents a quantitative analysis of the intangible costs of disability, loss of wellbeing and premature death from VI and blindness. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) are the primary non-financial metric used by the WHO and other organisations for quantifying the burden of disease, and measure the suffering and premature death from an illness or injury.
In this chapter, DALYs are also converted to a financial equivalent using a monetary valuation of a statistical life year (i.e. one DALY).