GBD in the Nordic Region with Dr. Ann Kristin Knudsen

Dr. Ann Kristin Knudsen talks about the valuable partnership between health researchers in the Nordic countries and IHME.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity

How do the various Nordic countries use the Global Burden of Disease Collaborator Network

Dr. Knudsen: I think we're on different levels on how we are using the GBD collaborating network. For instance, in Norway, we have been part of that for many years. It's been, GBD results have been heavily used in our policy documents, etc.. The other Nordic countries, they are more participating on an academic level, research level. But we have this very nice Nordic group who collaborates both on using GBD results, but also using Nordic data with GBD methods.

How does Norway support other Nordic countries which are more recent GBD Collaborators?

Dr. Knudsen: We try to encourage them. We try to show what we're doing in Norway and how the results are being used there to get also, their policymakers more engaged in the richness of the GBD data. And of course, like being in Nordic region, we like to compare our countries with each other and compare our successes. So that's also, I think, a motivation for using the GBD results.

Why is cross-Nordic collaboration critical at this time?

Dr. Knudsen: I think it's critical for several reasons. Of course, the comparability that the GBD offers is of very much importance. And when we do cross-country comparisons we can see, okay, Sweden is doing very well with tobacco as a risk factor, while Denmark is doing poorly on alcohol. And we can compare like the policy being made in the different countries, and how that influences on the disease burden from these specific risk factors. So I think that is one of the main, advantages with the GBD.

What are the key health challenges facing the Nordic community?

Dr. Knudsen: The key health challenge, I think, is the aging of the population, which we are facing in all the Nordic countries. This will give an immense burden on both our healthcare systems, but also our welfare systems in the future.

So, in that regard, the forecasting results from GBD is very, very useful for us to plan for how to scale up the health services and the welfare services. In addition to that, we are concerned about increasing mental health issues in the population, and pain conditions, which is an important cause of work disability, which is expensive and also takes down the workforce we have.

And we also face the same challenges that many other high-income countries, with cardiovascular diseases and cancers being large causes of disease burden. In terms of risk factors, it's alcohol, tobacco and diet, and high BMI, which we also see in other high-income countries.

How does your collaboration with IHME help healthcare in Norway?

Dr. Knudsen: We provide our government with results from the GBD project, and it's heavily used in many policy documents, and plans, and reports. For instance, it has been used as background knowledge for our upscaling of the mental health services, which GBD shows the influence of our mental health issues, compared to other diseases.

Forecasting results is also very, very, useful for Norway, and for the health planning and the scaling of the health services. It's most used in these plans, both from the Ministry of Finance, but also from the Ministry of Health.

What do the Nordic countries bring to the GBD partnership with IHME?

Dr. Knudsen: I would like to say that our health data is very good, and I think having Nordic updated health data into the project is very helpful also for the global estimates.

Also, we have a nice group now of Nordic collaborators who gather twice a year and discuss the results, and the methods, and the models. We use Nordic data, with linkage on the individual level. And with this we can explore things that cannot so easily be done in the GBD project, for instance disease burden by educational level. And I think that can contribute to also the broader understanding of the distribution of disease burden in the population.