The global burden of disease (GBD) is a comprehensive regional and global assessment of mortality and disability from 107 diseases and injuries and ten risk factors. The GBD is assessed using the GBD study by the World Health Organization (WHO), and is an example of an evidence-based input to public health policy debate. The aim of the study was to provide information and projections about disease burden on a global scale.

The GBD project was initiated in 1992 and is currently a collaborative effort between more than 800 experts worldwide, including researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), WHO and the World Bank. The original project estimated health gaps using disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for eight regions of the world in 1990. It provides a standardised approach to epidemiological assessment and uses a standard unit, the disability-adjusted life year (DALY), to aid comparisons.

The GBD has three specific aims:

The burden of disease can be viewed as the gap between current health status and an ideal situation in which everyone lives into old age free of disease and disability. Causes of the gap are premature mortality, disability and exposure to certain risk factors that contribute to illness.