The Unseen Global Burden of Disease

Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2021 Mar;164(3):459-461. doi: 10.1177/0194599820951464. Epub 2020 Aug 25.

Abstract

Due to geographic-specific patient and institutional-related barriers to care, data extrapolation and expert opinion on global burden of disease in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery may under- or overestimate the presence and effect of common head and neck conditions. The group of conditions that fail to present to local physicians and/or missed in data extrapolation methods is the unseen burden of disease. This article presents opinions from otolaryngology-head and neck surgery physicians in high- and low/middle-income countries to help explain the contributing factors and ultimately how to use this unseen burden of disease.

Keywords: disease burden; global medicine; global surgery; unseen burden.

MeSH terms

  • Global Burden of Disease / statistics & numerical data*
  • Head / surgery
  • Humans
  • Neck / surgery
  • Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases / surgery
  • Otorhinolaryngologic Surgical Procedures