The international health nurse is calculating the disability-adjusted

QUESTION

The international health nurse is calculating the disability-adjusted life-year (DALY) for people with cardiovascular disease in a South American country.

The average life expectancy of the people in the country is 72 years. The following information is being used for this calculation:
Years of Life Lost Years Lost to Disability
6 12
4 5
2 5
7 9
8 4
1 3
1 2
What is the DALY for this health problem?

ANSWER:

Correct Answer: 69

Healthy average life expectancy (HALE) is the “average number of years that a person can expect to live in ‘full health’ by taking into account years lived in less than full health due to disease and/or injury.” A disability-adjusted life-year (DALY) is “one lost year of ‘healthy’ life.” The sum of these DALYs across the population, or the burden of disease, is the measurement of the gap between current health status and an ideal health situation where the entire population lives to an advanced age, free of disease and disability. DALYs are the years of life lived with a disability adjusted for the severity of disability. Currently DALYs for health conditions or injuries are calculated by summing the years of life lost (YLL) due to premature mortality in the population and the years lost to disability (YLD) for people living with the condition or its consequences.