BMC Public Health (Aug 2022)

Methodological considerations in injury burden of disease studies across Europe: a systematic literature review

  • Periklis Charalampous,
  • Elena Pallari,
  • Vanessa Gorasso,
  • Elena von der Lippe,
  • Brecht Devleesschauwer,
  • Sara M. Pires,
  • Dietrich Plass,
  • Jane Idavain,
  • Che Henry Ngwa,
  • Isabel Noguer,
  • Alicia Padron-Monedero,
  • Rodrigo Sarmiento,
  • Marek Majdan,
  • Balázs Ádám,
  • Ala’a AlKerwi,
  • Seila Cilovic-Lagarija,
  • Benjamin Clarsen,
  • Barbara Corso,
  • Sarah Cuschieri,
  • Keren Dopelt,
  • Mary Economou,
  • Florian Fischer,
  • Alberto Freitas,
  • Juan Manuel García-González,
  • Federica Gazzelloni,
  • Artemis Gkitakou,
  • Hakan Gulmez,
  • Paul Hynds,
  • Gaetano Isola,
  • Lea S. Jakobsen,
  • Zubair Kabir,
  • Katarzyna Kissimova-Skarbek,
  • Ann Kristin Knudsen,
  • Naime Meriç Konar,
  • Carina Ladeira,
  • Brian Lassen,
  • Aaron Liew,
  • Marjeta Majer,
  • Enkeleint A. Mechili,
  • Alibek Mereke,
  • Lorenzo Monasta,
  • Stefania Mondello,
  • Joana Nazaré Morgado,
  • Evangelia Nena,
  • Edmond S. W. Ng,
  • Vikram Niranjan,
  • Iskra Alexandra Nola,
  • Rónán O’Caoimh,
  • Panagiotis Petrou,
  • Vera Pinheiro,
  • Miguel Reina Ortiz,
  • Silvia Riva,
  • Hanen Samouda,
  • João Vasco Santos,
  • Cornelia Melinda Adi Santoso,
  • Milena Santric Milicevic,
  • Dimitrios Skempes,
  • Ana Catarina Sousa,
  • Niko Speybroeck,
  • Fimka Tozija,
  • Brigid Unim,
  • Hilal Bektaş Uysal,
  • Fabrizio Giovanni Vaccaro,
  • Orsolya Varga,
  • Milena Vasic,
  • Francesco Saverio Violante,
  • Grant M. A. Wyper,
  • Suzanne Polinder,
  • Juanita A. Haagsma

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13925-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 22, no. 1
pp. 1 – 15

Abstract

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Abstract Background Calculating the disease burden due to injury is complex, as it requires many methodological choices. Until now, an overview of the methodological design choices that have been made in burden of disease (BoD) studies in injury populations is not available. The aim of this systematic literature review was to identify existing injury BoD studies undertaken across Europe and to comprehensively review the methodological design choices and assumption parameters that have been made to calculate years of life lost (YLL) and years lived with disability (YLD) in these studies. Methods We searched EMBASE, MEDLINE, Cochrane Central, Google Scholar, and Web of Science, and the grey literature supplemented by handsearching, for BoD studies. We included injury BoD studies that quantified the BoD expressed in YLL, YLD, and disability-adjusted life years (DALY) in countries within the European Region between early-1990 and mid-2021. Results We retrieved 2,914 results of which 48 performed an injury-specific BoD assessment. Single-country independent and Global Burden of Disease (GBD)-linked injury BoD studies were performed in 11 European countries. Approximately 79% of injury BoD studies reported the BoD by external cause-of-injury. Most independent studies used the incidence-based approach to calculate YLDs. About half of the injury disease burden studies applied disability weights (DWs) developed by the GBD study. Almost all independent injury studies have determined YLL using national life tables. Conclusions Considerable methodological variation across independent injury BoD assessments was observed; differences were mainly apparent in the design choices and assumption parameters towards injury YLD calculations, implementation of DWs, and the choice of life table for YLL calculations. Development and use of guidelines for performing and reporting of injury BoD studies is crucial to enhance transparency and comparability of injury BoD estimates across Europe and beyond.

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