Mapping disability-adjusted life years: a Bayesian hierarchical model framework for burden of disease and injury assessment

This paper presents a Bayesian disability-adjusted life year (DALY) methodology for spatial and spatiotemporal analyses of disease and/or injury burden. A Bayesian disease mapping model framework, which blends together spatial modelling, shared-component modelling (SCM), temporal modelling, ecological modelling, and non-linear modelling, is developed for small-area DALY estimation and inference. In particular, we develop a model framework that enables SCM as well as multivariate CAR modelling of non-fatal and fatal disease or injury rates and facilitates spline smoothing for non-linear modelling of temporal rate and risk trends. Using British Columbia (Canada) hospital admission-separation data and vital statistics mortality data on non-fatal and fatal road traffic injuries to male population age 20-39 for year 1991-2000 and for 84 local health areas and 16 health service delivery areas, spatial and spatiotemporal estimation and inference on years of life lost due to premature death, years lived with disability, and DALYs are presented. Fully Bayesian estimation and inference, with Markov chain Monte Carlo implementation, are illustrated. We present a methodological framework within which the DALY and the Bayesian disease mapping methodologies interface and intersect. Its development brings the relative importance of premature mortality and disability into the assessment of community health and health needs in order to provide reliable information and evidence for community-based public health surveillance and evaluation, disease and injury prevention, and resource provision.