Can global or national disability weights represent provincial level?

Qin He; Maigeng Zhou; Peng Yin; Bo Jiang; Jinlei Qi; Yunning Liu; Jiangmei Liu; Jinling You; Yuchang Zhou; Zheng Long; Xiuya Xing; Qianyao Cheng; Yeji Chen; Huadong Wang; Zhirong Liu

doi:10.1186/s12889-022-14347-7

Can global or national disability weights represent provincial level?

BMC Public Health. 2023 Mar 10;23(1):461. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-14347-7.

Authors

Qin He¹, Maigeng Zhou², Peng Yin², Bo Jiang², Jinlei Qi², Yunning Liu², Jiangmei Liu², Jinling You², Yuchang Zhou², Zheng Long², Xiuya Xing¹, Qianyao Cheng¹, Yeji Chen¹, Huadong Wang¹, Zhirong Liu³

Affiliations

¹ Anhui Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shushan District, Hefei, 230601, China.
² National Center for Chronic and Non-Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Xicheng District, Beijing, 100050, China.
³ Anhui Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shushan District, Hefei, 230601, China. liuzhirong66@126.com.

Abstract

Background: A universal set of disability weights(DWs) is mainly based on the survey of North America, Australia and Europe, whereas the participants in Asia was limited. The debate hasn't yet settled whether a universal DW is desirable or useful.The focus of the debate is its representativenes-s.After all, the DWs come from people's subjective evaluation of pain, and they may vary according to cultural background.The differences of the DWs could have implications for the magnitude or ranking of disease burdens.The DWs of Anhui Province has not been completely presented.This paper aims to obtain the DWs suitable for the general population of Anhui Province of China, and attempts to explore the differences between different DWs by comparing the DWs with the similar-cultural background and the DWs with cross-cultural background.

Methods: A web-based survey was conducted to estimate the DWs for 206 health states of Anhui province in 2020. Paired comparison (PC) data were analyzed and anchored by probit regression and fitting loess model. We compared the DWs in Anhui with other provinces in China and those in Global burden of disease (GBD) and Japan.

Results: Compared with Anhui province, the proportion of health states which showed 2 times or more differences ranged from 1.94% (Henan) to 11.17% (Sichuan) in China and domestic provinces. It was 19.88% in Japan and 21.51% in GBD 2013 respectively. In Asian countries or regions, most of the health states with top 15 DWs belonged to the category of mental, behavioral, and substance use disorders. But in GBD, most were infectious diseases and cancer. The differences of DWs in neighboring provinces were smaller than other geographically distant provinces or countries.

Conclusion: PC responses were largely consistent across very distinct settings,but the exceptions do need to be faced squarely.The differences of DWs among similar-cultural regions were smaller than cross-cultural regions. There is an urgent need for relevant gold standards.

Keywords: Cross-cultural comparisons; Disability weight; Health state; Paired comparison; Probit regression model.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cost of Illness
Disabled Persons*
Global Burden of Disease
Humans
Neoplasms*
Surveys and Questionnaires