UK health performance: findings of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.

Abstract

'...how important the NHS is to everybody in this country.'

Main

Murray CJL, Richards MA et al. The Lancet, 2013; 381: 997–1020

This paper reports that during the past two decades 1) although mortality has generally decreased across every age group in the UK, 2) such a reduction has not consistently been reflected in disability, and 3) these health improvements in the UK were significantly less than those found in other member states of the EU. A possible explanation for these observations in the UK is that it is a 'legacy of extremely high tobacco consumption after World War 2 in men'. So although the above sentiments of Danny Boyle, when reflecting on the opening ceremony of the Olympics, gave us all pride in our NHS, alas it has not always delivered optimal improvements in health. Nevertheless, this universal care system could provide 'a potential vehicle for systematic identification of patients' for disease risk factors.