Disability-Adjusted Life Years for Communicable Disease in the Korean Burden of Disease Study 2012

Lee, Ye-Rin; Moon, Kanghee; Kim, Young Ae; Park, So-Youn; Oh, Chang-Mo; Lee, Kyung-Suk; Oh, In-Hwan

This study was the first national DALY study of all communicable diseases in Korea. The total DALYs from communicable diseases were 445 per 100,000 in 2012, which consisted of 29.0% YLLs and 71.0% YLDs. The total DALYs in men were greater than that seen in women. The largest volume of total DALYs was in the 40-49 years old age group and the lowest was in the ≥ 80 years old age group. However, the ≥ 80 years old age group had the highest DALYs per 100,000, followed by the 70-79 and 0-9 years old age groups. These results indicate that children and elderly people are particularly sensitive to, and at high risk for, communicable diseases. This is consistent with the findings of previous studies in other countries, such as New Zealand, where the communicable disease-related hospitalization rate for patients under 5 years of age was five times greater than that for patients in the 15-29 years old age group; in addition, the communicable disease-related hospitalization rate per 100,000 was highest in the ≥ 70 years old age group (5) . In other words, children and elderly people known as vulnerable group were concentrated for communicable disease in high income region. Therefore, we need to additional study for DALY in socioeconomic perspective.