GBD 2019: The State of Health in Pakistan and Its Provinces and Territories, 1990–2019: A Systematic Analysis

This article from The Lancet uses the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 to examine the state of health in Pakistan, presenting comprehensive estimates for health trends and outcomes from 1990 to 2019. The article analyzes various socio-demographic indicators across Pakistan provinces and territories, including total fertility rate, life expectancy, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), cause-specific deaths, and more. 

The article presents data for Pakistan at the national and subregional levels, analyzing data for 286 causes of death. The authors find that national life expectancy increased from 61.1 years in 1990 to 65.9 years in 2019, though these improvements varied by region. Over this period, women saw a more significant improvement in life expectancy than men in Pakistan. The study concluded that the leading risk factors for death and DALYs in 2019 included child and maternal malnutrition, air pollution, high blood pressure, and dietary risks. 

The article finds that while progress on the burden of disease in Pakistan has been made over time, inequalities persist across geographic region, age, and sex– and calls for addressing the burden of noncommunicable diseases, political conflict, and climate change to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, GBD is a global effort with researchers from over 150 countries and territories. IHME and other partnering organizations have developed numerous resources to disseminate and visualize the findings of the GBD studies, data visualizations and interactives, country profiles, policy reports, research articles, infographics, and the GBD Results Tool, which allows users to search GBD data.