The state of health in Pakistan and its provinces and territories, 1990-2019 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved..

BACKGROUND: Understanding health trends and estimating the burden of disease at the national and subnational levels helps policy makers track progress and identify disparities in overall health performance. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 provides comprehensive estimates for Pakistan. Comparison of health indicators since 1990 provides valuable insights about Pakistan's ability to strengthen its health-care system, reduce inequalities, improve female and child health outcomes, achieve universal health coverage, and meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We present estimates of the burden of disease, injuries, and risk factors for Pakistan provinces and territories from 1990 to 2019 based on GBD 2019 to improve health and health outcomes in the country.

METHODS: We used methods and data inputs from GBD 2019 to estimate socio-demographic index, total fertility rate, cause-specific deaths, years of life lost, years lived with disability, disability-adjusted life-years, healthy life expectancy, and risk factors for 286 causes of death and 369 causes of non-fatal health loss in Pakistan and its four provinces and three territories from 1990 to 2019. To generate estimates for Pakistan at the national and subnational levels, we used 68 location-years of data to estimate Pakistan-specific demographic indicators, 316 location-years of data for Pakistan-specific causes of death, 579 location-years of data for Pakistan-specific non-fatal outcomes, 296 location-years of data for Pakistan-specific risk factors, and 3089 location-years of data for Pakistan-specific covariates.

FINDINGS: Life expectancy for both sexes in Pakistan increased nationally from 61·1 (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 60·0-62·1) years in 1990 to 65·9 (63·8-67·8) years in 2019; however, these gains were not uniform across the provinces and federal territories. Pakistan saw a narrowing of the difference in healthy life expectancy between the sexes from 1990 to 2019, as health gains for women occurred at faster rates than for men. For women, life expectancy increased by 8·2% (95% UI 6·3-13·8) between 1990 and 2019, whereas the male life expectancy increased by 7·6% (3·5-11·8). Neonatal disorders, followed by ischaemic heart disease, stroke, diarrhoeal diseases, and lower respiratory infections were the leading causes of all-age premature mortality in 2019. Child and maternal malnutrition, air pollution, high systolic blood pressure, dietary risks, and tobacco consumption were the leading all-age risk factors for death and disability-adjusted life-years at the national level in 2019. Five non-communicable diseases-ischaemic heart disease, stroke, congenital defects, cirrhosis, and chronic kidney disease-were among the ten leading causes of years of life lost in Pakistan. Burden varied by socio-demographic index. Notably, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had the lowest observed gains in life expectancy. Dietary iron deficiency was the leading cause of years lived with disability for both men and women in 1990 and 2019. Low birthweight and short gestation and particulate matter pollution were the leading contributors to overall disease burden in both 1990 and 2019 despite moderate improvements, with a 23·5% (95% UI 3·8-39·2) and 27·6% (14·3-38·6) reduction in age-standardised attributable DALY rates during the study period.

INTERPRETATION: Our study shows that progress has been made on reducing Pakistan's disease burden since 1990, but geographical, age, and sex disparities persist. Equitable investment in the health system, as well as the prioritisation of high-impact policy interventions and programmes, are needed to save lives and improve health outcomes. Pakistan is facing several domestic and foreign challenges-the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan, political turmoil, catastrophic flooding, the COVID-19 pandemic-that will shape the trajectory of the country's health and development. Pakistan must address the burden of infectious disease and curb rising rates of non-communicable diseases. Prioritising these three areas will enhance Pakistan's ability to achieve universal health coverage, meet its Sustainable Development Goals, and improve the overall health outcomes.

FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

TRANSLATION: For the Urdu translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

Errataetall:

CommentIn: Lancet Glob Health. 2023 Feb;11(2):e177-e178. - PMID 36669797

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2023

Erschienen:

2023

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:11

Enthalten in:

The Lancet. Global health - 11(2023), 2 vom: 21. Feb., Seite e229-e243

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

GBD 2019 Pakistan Collaborators [VerfasserIn]
Hafeez, Assad [Sonstige Person]
Dangel, William James [Sonstige Person]
Ostroff, Samuel M [Sonstige Person]
Kiani, Ayyaz Gul [Sonstige Person]
Glenn, Scott D [Sonstige Person]
Abbas, Jaffar [Sonstige Person]
Afzal, Muhammad Sohail [Sonstige Person]
Afzal, Saira [Sonstige Person]
Ahmad, Sajjad [Sonstige Person]
Ahmed, Ali [Sonstige Person]
Ahmed, Haroon [Sonstige Person]
Ali, Liaqat [Sonstige Person]
Ali, Muhammad [Sonstige Person]
Ali, Zahid [Sonstige Person]
Arshad, Muhammad [Sonstige Person]
Ashraf, Tahira [Sonstige Person]
Bhutta, Zulfiqar A [Sonstige Person]
Bibi, Sadia [Sonstige Person]
Butt, Zahid A [Sonstige Person]
Das, Jai K [Sonstige Person]
Fadoo, Zehra [Sonstige Person]
Hanif, Asif [Sonstige Person]
Hayat, Khezar [Sonstige Person]
Humayun, Ayesha [Sonstige Person]
Iqbal, Khalid [Sonstige Person]
Iqbal, Usman [Sonstige Person]
Khalid, Nauman [Sonstige Person]
Khan, Ejaz Ahmad [Sonstige Person]
Khan, Muhammad Shahzeb [Sonstige Person]
Malik, Ahmad Azam [Sonstige Person]
Naveed, Muhammad [Sonstige Person]
Naz, Shumaila [Sonstige Person]
Niazi, Robina Khan [Sonstige Person]
Piracha, Zahra Zahid [Sonstige Person]
Saeed, Umar [Sonstige Person]
Salman, Muhammad [Sonstige Person]
Samad, Zainab [Sonstige Person]
Saqib, Muhammad Arif Nadeem [Sonstige Person]
Shah, Syed Mahboob [Sonstige Person]
Shahid, Izza [Sonstige Person]
Shaikh, Masood Ali [Sonstige Person]
Shamshad, Hina [Sonstige Person]
Shuja, Kanwar Hamza [Sonstige Person]
Suleman, Muhammad [Sonstige Person]
Ullah, Anayat [Sonstige Person]
Ullah, Irfan [Sonstige Person]
Ullah, Saif [Sonstige Person]
Ullah, Sana [Sonstige Person]
Waheed, Yasir [Sonstige Person]
Waris, Abdul [Sonstige Person]
Hay, Simon I [Sonstige Person]
Murray, Christopher J L [Sonstige Person]
Mokdad, Ali H [Sonstige Person]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 24.01.2023

Date Revised 22.02.2024

published: Print

CommentIn: Lancet Glob Health. 2023 Feb;11(2):e177-e178. - PMID 36669797

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1016/S2214-109X(22)00497-1

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM351805338