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Public Health & Epidemiology vocabulary · Measuring Health and Disease

DALY

Meaning in public health & epidemiology, with examples

/ˈdæli/abbreviationAdvanced term

In public health & epidemiology, DALY means: Short for disability-adjusted life year: one year of healthy life lost, either through early death or through living with illness or disability.

In Turkish: engelliliğe ayarlanmış yaşam yılı, EAYY

How it is used

DALYs are the sum of years of life lost (YLL) and years lived with disability (YLD). They are the main unit of the Global Burden of Disease study and let very different problems, such as road injuries and depression, be compared. Often read aloud as 'dally'.

Example sentences

  1. Low back pain causes millions of DALYs every year even though it rarely kills.

  2. The programme costs about 50 dollars per DALY averted.

Common collocations

  • DALYs averted
  • DALYs lost
  • cost per DALY
  • years lived with disability
  • burden of diseaseThe total impact of a disease or health problem on a population, measured by deaths, illness, disability and sometimes economic cost.
  • morbidityThe state of being ill or having a disease, or the amount of illness in a population, as opposed to mortality, which refers to death.
  • life expectancyThe average number of years a person of a given age can expect to live if current death rates stay the same, most often reported as life expectancy at birth.
  • mortality rateThe number of deaths in a population during a period, divided by the size of that population, often given per 1,000 or 100,000 people per year.

More terms: Measuring Health and Disease

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.