Global Burdens of Disease (GBD), Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)
Summary
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) provides data on the Global Burdens of Disease that can be accessed here http://ghdx.healthdata.org/gbd-results-tool. IHME provides data on multiple metrics that we pull into IFs, including deaths, DALYs, incidence, prevalence, violence and forecasts for each.
Table In IFs
There are 5 groups of data tables we pull from IHME into IFs. You can view the detailed pulling instruction below to see the exact tables needed.
Tables on Prevalence and Incidence
These are tables related to drug prevalence, deaths from violences, and prevalence of some specific diseases.
Tables Used in Hist+Forecast Display
There are 45 tables in total related to detailed death tables in IFs. For each of 15 death causes in IFs, we have a total death table and two tables by sex group. These 45 tables can be searched by using the following naming conventions IHMEDths___, IHMEDths___Females, and IHMEDths___Males, where ___ denotes the cause of death in IFs. These 15 causes are, Cardio, Diabet, Diarrh, Digest, HIV, Intlj, Malar, MalNeopl, MentHlth, OthCD, OthNCD, OthUnintlj, Respinfec, Respiratory, Roadacc.
Note that a detailed death cause mapping table can be found here.
Life Expectancy
IFs uses IHME estimates for life expectations instead of UNDP, where we normally pull our demographic related indicators.
Infant Mortality
Note that IHME does not always provide numbers in an aggregated fashion. For infant mortality and under 5 mortality, you will probably need to add up numbers by different age & sex groups.
For example, in IHME, the age group of under 5 years are consisted of 0–6 days (early neonatal), 7–27 days (late neonatal), 1–5 months, 6–11 months, 12–23 months, and 2–4 years. In addition, it also provides an aggregated group called <1 year. Thus, <5 year could be the sum of <1 year, 12-23 months, and 2-4 years.
Tables in IFs.db
- HealthDetailedDeathsCtry: Detailed instruction on pulling number of deaths for IFs death categories can be found here.
Data Pulling Instructions
Preprocessors on Prevalence and Incidence
Python scripts used from last data pull can be accessed and adjusted for future data pulls. An updated country concordance table can be found here. There are different country concordance for each set of indicators. Double check what format of country concordance you need for each section.
Use these filters:
| Variable | GBD Estimate | Measure | Metric | Cause | Location | Age | Sex | Year | Decimal Places |
| ViolencePoliticalConflictTerror | Cause of death or injury | Deaths | Rate | Conflict and terrorism | Select all countries and territories | All Ages | Both | Select all | 4 |
| ViolencePoliticalPoliceExecution | Cause of death or injury | Deaths | Rate | Executions and police conflict | Select all countries and territories | All Ages | Both | Select all | 4 |
| ViolenceSelfHarm | Cause of death or injury | Deaths | Rate | Self-harm | Select all countries and territories | All Ages | Both | Select all | 4 |
| SocietalViolenceDeathsTotal | Cause of death or injury | Deaths | Rate | Interpersonal violence + Conflict and terrorism + Executions and police conflict | Select all countries and territories | All Ages | Both | Select all | 4 |
| ViolenceInterpersonChild | Cause of death or injury | Deaths | Rate | Interpersonal violence against all children death rate | Select all countries and territories | 0-14 | Both | Select all | 4 |
| ViolenceInterpersonWomenAdult | Cause of death or injury | Deaths | Rate | Interpersonal violence | Select all countries and territories | >= 15 | Female | Select all | 4 |
| DrOpiodPrevIHME | Cause of death or injury | Prevalence | Percent | Opioid Use Disorders | Select all countries and territories | All Ages | Both | Select all | 4 |
| DrugPrevalenceAmphetaminesIHME | Cause of death or injury | Prevalence | Percent | Amphetamine Use Disorders | Select all countries and territories | All Ages | Both | Select all | 5 |
| DrugPrevalenceCocaineIHME | Cause of death or injury | Prevalence | Percent | Cocaine Use Disorders | Select all countries and territories | All Ages | Both | Select all | 5 |
| IHMEDthsHIV | Cause of death or injury | Deaths | Number | HIV/AIDs | Select all countries and territories | All Ages | Both | Select all | 5 |
| IHMEDthsMalar | Cause of death or injury | Deaths | Number | Malaria | Select all countries and territories | All Ages | Both | Select all | 5 |
| IHMEInciHIVNumber | Cause of death or injury | Incidence | Number | HIV/AIDs | Select all countries and territories | All Ages | Both | Select all | |
| IHMEInciMalariaNumber | Cause of death or injury | Incidence | Number | Malaria | Select all countries and territories | All Ages | Both | Select all | |
| IHMEPrevHIV | Cause of death or injury | Prevalence | Percent | HIV/AIDs | Select all countries and territories | All Ages | Both | Select all | 3 |
| IHMEPrevHIVNumber | Cause of death or injury | Prevalence | Number | HIV/AIDs | Select all countries and territories | All Ages | Both | Select all | |
| IHMEPrevMalariaNumber | Cause of death or injury | Prevalence | Number | Malaria | Select all countries and territories | All Ages | Both | Select all | |
| ViolenceInterpersonOther | Cause of death or injury | Deaths | Rate | Death rate from Interpersonal violence for males aged over 15 | Select all countries and territories | >= 15 | Both | Select all | |
| ViolenceInterpersonWomenChild | Cause of death or injury | Deaths | Rate | Deaths from interpersonal violence (Violence against women and children) | Select all countries and territories | Sum of Child and WomenAdult | Both | Select all |
Tables Used in Hist+Forecast Display
GBD Estimate Cause of death or injury
Measure Deaths
Metric Rate
Location All territories and countries
Age All ages
Sex Both, Female, Male
Year All
Use the detailed death cause mapping table here for following tables
| Table |
|---|
| IHMEDthsCardio |
| IHMEDthsCardioFemales |
| IHMEDthsCardioMales |
| IHMEDthsDiabet |
| IHMEDthsDiabetFemales |
| IHMEDthsDiabetMales |
| IHMEDthsDiarrh |
| IHMEDthsDiarrhFemales |
| IHMEDthsDiarrhMales |
| IHMEDthsDigest |
| IHMEDthsDigestFemales |
| IHMEDthsDigestMales |
| IHMEDthsHIV |
| IHMEDthsHIVFemales |
| IHMEDthsHIVMales |
| IHMEDthsIntIj |
| IHMEDthsIntIjFemales |
| IHMEDthsIntIjMales |
| IHMEDthsMalar |
| IHMEDthsMalarFemales |
| IHMEDthsMalarMales |
| IHMEDthsMalNeopl |
| IHMEDthsMalNeoplFemales |
| IHMEDthsMalNeoplMales |
| IHMEDthsMentHlth |
| IHMEDthsMentHlthFemales |
| IHMEDthsMentHlthMales |
| IHMEDthsOthCD |
| IHMEDthsOthCDFemales |
| IHMEDthsOthCDMales |
| IHMEDthsOthNCD |
| IHMEDthsOthNCDFemales |
| IHMEDthsOthNCDMales |
| IHMEDthsOthUnintIj |
| IHMEDthsOthUnintIjFemales |
| IHMEDthsOthUnintIjMales |
| IHMEDthsRespinfec |
| IHMEDthsRespinfecFemales |
| IHMEDthsRespinfecMales |
| IHMEDthsRespiratory |
| IHMEDthsRespiratoryFemales |
| IHMEDthsRespiratoryMales |
| IHMEDthsRoadacc |
| IHMEDthsRoadaccFemales |
| IHMEDthsRoadaccMales |
Life Expectancy
Navigate to: https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-results/
Use the filters: GBD Estimate All-cause mortality
Measure Life Expectancy
Metric Years
Location All territories and countries
Age Stated below
Sex Stated below
Year All
| Variable | Age | Sex | Year | Metric Name | Decimal Places |
| LifeExpectIHMEBothSexesHistOnly | 0-6 days | Both | 1950-2023 | Years | 3 |
| LifeExpectIHMEMaleHistOnly | 0-6 days | Male | 1950-2023 | Years | 3 |
| LifeExpectIHMEFemaleHistOnly | 0-6 days | Female | 1950-2023 | Years | 3 |
Infant Mortality
Life expectancy data can be pulled from http://ghdx.healthdata.org/gbd-results-tool. The filters should be:
GBD Estimate All-cause mortality
Measure Life Tables
Metric Probability of death
Location All territories and countries
Age Stated below
Sex Both
Year All
| Variable | Age | Sex | Year | Decimal Places |
| InfMortRateIHME | < 1 year | Both | 1950-2023 | 4 |
| Under5MortRateIHME | Calculation of < 1 year, 12-23 months, and 2-4 year | Both | 1950-2023 | 4 |
Calculations:
In order to get the right value for Under5MortRateIHME, we have to calculate it. It should be:
PoD under 5 = PoD under 1 + PoD 12-23 months * Probability of not dying under 1+ PoD 2-4 years * Probability of not dying under 2.
An example is posted below for Iraq:
| Age | Metric | Year | Value |
| <1 year | Probability of death | 2019 | 0.019244 |
| 12-23 months | Probability of death | 2019 | 0.001482 |
| 2-4 years | Probability of death | 2019 | 0.002298 |
The PoD for under 2 would be = 0.019244 + 0.001482 * ( 1 - 0.019244) = 0.020698;
The PoD for under 5 would be = 0.020698 + 0.002298 * ( 1 - 0.020698) = 0.022948.
The final data point is 0.022948.
Data Notes
- ViolenceInterpersonChild & ViolenceInterpersonWomenAdult have changed a lot, we identify the Age by comparing the trend of old data in IFsHistSeries and the new data from GBD.
- In March 2025, the ages have shifted from >20 for adults to >15. To get this data, do a summation of 15-19 and 20+
- Be aware of the definition of each preprocessor and its unit so that you can find the exact match in the IHME GBD variables.
Proxies
- Some regions in IFs are not provided by IHME yet, we are encouraged to use proxies. For example, use Singapore, Albania, and Mali for Hong Kong, Kosovo, and Sahrawi respectively. Be mindful that for tables with units in rate or percent, proximal values can be directly applied; however, when values are in numbers or headcounts, you will need to borrow the population figures to apply values proportionally.
- For instance, LifeExpectIHMEBothSexesHistOnly would not use a calculation, but IHMEDthsHIV will.
- To do this use SeriesPopulation. For instance, Kosovo’s number of deaths = Albania’s number of deaths * Kosovo’s Population / Albania’s Population.