A Systematic Review of the Burden of Disease Studies on Diabetes

Year 2025, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 1 - 17, 07.08.2025

Selin Coşkun , Vahit Yiğit

https://doi.org/10.52675/jhesp.1719460

Abstract

Diabetes is a major cause of morbidity and premature mortality on a global scale, and its prevalence has been increasing in recent decades. The overall health impact of the disease is measured by disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), which is the sum of years of life lost due to disability (YLDs) and years of life lost due to premature death (YLLs). This systematic review was conducted to evaluate studies that estimated the burden of diabetes disease at the global, national, or regional level, and to identify and review the epidemiologic metrics (DALYs, YLDs, YLLs, incidence, prevalence and mortality) and the methods used to determine the burden of disease. A comprehensive search strategy was employed to identify eligible studies published between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2024, in Medline, Scopus, Science Direct, BioMed Central and CINAHL databases. The study was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Studies that utilised DALYs or their subsets (YLDs/YLLs) as measures of the health impact of diabetes and that were published in English were included in the review. Following a thorough evaluation of the relevant literature, a total of 16 studies out of 1,307 were deemed to be eligible for review. This research reveals a lack of harmonisation of epidemiological data and methods that hinders the capacity for meaningful comparisons across studies of the burden of diabetes. The findings outlined in this study provide a comprehensive framework for the diversification of diabetes burden of disease studies across different countries and regions, with a particular focus on the global level.

Keywords

Diabetes mellitus, Disability-adjusted life years, DALY, Systematic review

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