The burden of any disease, anywhere.

Prevalence, incidence, mortality, and DALYs by country, region, age, and sex from 1990 to the present, with decomposition analysis, joinpoint trends, and projections to 2050. The most efficient route to a well-cited paper on a disease in your own country or region, and consistently attractive to policy-oriented journals.

What it is

The world's health, measured and modeled.

The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, coordinated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and published in The Lancet, is a systematic synthesis of thousands of data sources. It estimates incidence, prevalence, deaths, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and risk-attributable burden for hundreds of conditions across 204 countries and many subnational locations, updated in cycles (most recently GBD 2021).

What it is built for

Scope, hundreds of diseases and injuries across 204 countries, 1990 onward.

Design, descriptive burden, decomposition, joinpoint trend, projection (to 2050), and risk-factor attribution analyses.

Note, figures are modeled estimates, not raw counts; interpretation should respect that.

World choropleth map of age-standardised DALY rates per 100,000 by country, shaded in five steps from light to dark teal, with a legend
The signature GBD figure: a choropleth of age-standardised rates by country, the same estimate can be mapped, trended from 1990, decomposed, and projected to 2050.

How it works

The method, in plain terms.

01

Burden question

Disease, locations, years

02

Pull estimates

Incidence, deaths, DALYs

03

Risk factors

Attributable burden

04

Trends & decomposition

Joinpoint; ageing vs growth

05

Projections

To 2050, with maps

06

Honest framing

Uncertainty intervals stated

How you benefit

Why authors start here.

The project, step by step

How a GBD study runs with Cohira.

Start a GBD study →

1

Scope the question

We define the disease, locations, and angle that make a publishable burden story.

2

Define the extract

We specify exactly which GBD measures, years, and groups the paper needs.

3

Pull & structure data

We extract the estimates and organize them for analysis and figures.

4

Analysis & visuals

We compute trends and comparisons and build maps and figures in R.

5

Manuscript

We draft a clear paper with you, figures, tables, and uncertainty reported honestly.

6

Submit & revise

We target the right journal, submit, and answer reviewers with you to a decision.

Published examples

What GBD studies look like in print.

Peer-reviewed studies built on GBD data, shown to illustrate the kind of question and journal this database supports.

J Am Coll CardiolComparative burden study

Global burden of cardiovascular diseases and risk factors, 1990 to 2019

Roth GA, et al. · 2020

GBD estimates compared across 204 countries and three decades, the template for a regional cardiovascular burden paper.

View in journal →
The LancetIllustrative example

Global incidence, prevalence, YLDs, DALYs and HALE for 371 diseases in 204 countries, 1990 to 2021

GBD 2021 Diseases and Injuries Collaborators · 2024

The canonical GBD 2021 results, quantifying disease and injury burden worldwide and COVID-19's disruption of prior gains.

View in journal →
The LancetIllustrative example

Global burden and strength of evidence for 88 risk factors in 204 countries, 1990 to 2021

GBD 2021 Risk Factors Collaborators · 2024

Ranked 88 risk factors globally, identifying air pollution and high systolic blood pressure as leading contributors.

View in journal →
Lancet NeurologyIllustrative example

Global, regional, and national burden of stroke and its risk factors, 1990 to 2021

GBD 2021 Stroke Risk Factor Collaborators · 2024

Found stroke the third leading cause of death globally, with rising metabolic and environmental risk contributions.

View in journal →

These are independent published studies, shown to illustrate what GBD data makes possible, they are not Cohira's work. We help you design and publish studies of comparable rigor.

Pricing

One fee, from idea to publication.

Database study, idea to publication
Protocol, analysis with reproducible code, manuscript, journal shortlist, submission, and reviewer responses.
$1,800per study

Per project, never per author. Journal fees and database access are billed at cost. Your week-by-week timeline is written into the free feasibility note before you pay. Booking more than one study? 10% off the second, 15% off from the third. Acceptance Guarantee & group pricing →

More study types

TriNetXNIS / real-world dataSEER cancer registryUK BiobankAI & ML prediction modelsMeta-analysisNetwork meta-analysesDiagnostic accuracy meta-analysesNarrative reviewsCross-sectional studiesYour clinical dataSingle stages

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Tell us the condition and the population you care about. We will tell you honestly whether GBD can support a strong paper, and how we would build it.

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