National Burden of Disease and
Cost-Effectiveness Project for the Republic of Turkey A World Bank funded project to measure and evaluate the health of Turkey’s population and to make recommendations for the efficient use of resources for health investments and medical interventions. Funding Agent
The World Bank Participating Institutes
Atilim University
Baskent University (main contract grantee)
Johns Hopkins University
Kings College
North Carolina University
Saint Louis University
South Florida University
Tulane University
World Health Organization
The World Bank Description
The World Health Organization and the World Bank have conducted significant collaborative studies within the last 10 years measuring and evaluating the health of different societies. The World Bank, the World Health Organization and Harvard School of Public Health developed the model methodology for this study. The “Disability Adjusted Life Year” (DALY) was developed for national burden of disease calculations. The DALY is used to find life years lost to premature death and healthy life years lost to disability. These criteria are used to compare health conditions of societies, to measure health inequalities, to determine the magnitude of health problems and to identify efficient health investments and medical interventions. General objectives of the project are: 1) to calculate the burden of disease, injury and risk factors at a national level; 2) to conduct cost-effectiveness analyses by taking into consideration different health facilities and interventions; 3) to develop technical and institutional capacity to conduct and interpret National Burden of Disease and Cost-Effectiveness studies at the national and regional levels and 4) to ameliorate and strengthen the country’s health information system to ensure the continuity of the program. The project team will prepare a questionnaire for the household study and administer this questionnaire to the sampling frame selected by the State Statistical Institute, which will represent the country. We shall determine deaths that have occurred within the last year, through our original sampling frame as well as to neighbors of the index household (two to the left and two to the right), develop and administer a questionnaire regarding these deaths (verbal autopsy), and validate those deaths which occurred in a hospital. The team will also establish a secondary data collection catalog of health conditions based on priorities cited by members of the Steering Committee. The team will use DISMOD to calculate YLL and YLD. We shall conduct general cost analyses at the different levels of health facilities and make cost-effectiveness calculations at the level of interventions by taking into consideration these general costs and calculating household expenditures specific to diseases for these interventions. Finally, the team will organize seminars to augment institutional knowledge regarding burden of disease and cost-effectiveness issues, prepare source guides, and distribute these guides to the interested authorities. The Burden of Disease and Cost-Effectiveness Project for the Republic of Turkey will be the first step in assuring wise planning for the use of health resources. Knowledge about the burdens placed on society and the current use of health resources will aid the Ministry of Health in determining how these scarce resources can be more effectively targeted in order to reduce the burden of disease in the population. | 
