DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17449152
title: BeBOD estimates of social inequalities in mortality and years of life lost for 131 causes of death, 2013-2022

description: Belgian National Burden of Disease Study

Estimates of social inequalities in the fatal burden of disease

BIMD

The Belgian Index of Multiple Deprivation (BIMD) offers a multidimensional view of social deprivation across six domains: education, employment, income, housing, crime, and health. It provides a solid basis for assessing social inequalities in health and other outcomes. The BIMD is a relative measure calculated at the statistical sector level—the smallest administrative unit in Belgium—ranking sectors from most to least deprived. These ranked sectors are grouped into deciles, from the 10% most deprived (1st decile) to the 10% least deprived (10th decile).

Inequality measures



PAF, all-cause: The population attributable fraction (PAF) corresponds to the relative gain in health that would be expected for the whole population if all groups experienced the value of the more advantaged social group. The all-cause PAF for a specific cause is computed as the difference between the overall value in the population and the value for a specific cause in the more advantaged group, divided by the overall value in the population.

PAF, cause-specific: The population attributable fraction (PAF) corresponds to the relative gain in health that would be expected for the whole population if all groups experienced the value of the more advantaged social group. The cause-specific PAF is computed as the difference between the overall value for that cause in the population and the value for that cause in the more advantaged group, divided by the overall value for that cause in the population.

Rate difference: The difference between the value in the highest socio-economic level and the value of the lowest socio-economic level.

Rate ratio: The ratio between the value in the highest socio-economic level and the value of the lowest socio-economic level.


Causes of death

Our estimates are based on the official causes of death database compiled by Statbel. We first map the ICD-10 codes of the underlying causes of death to the Global Burden of Disease cause list, consisting of 131 unique causes of deaths. Next, we perform a probabilistic redistribution of ill-defined deaths to specific causes, to obtain a specific cause of death for each deceased person.

Years of Life Lost

In addition to counting the number of deaths, we also calculate Years of Life Lost (YLLs) as a measure of premature mortality. YLLs correspond to the life expectancy at the age of death, and therefore give a higher weight to deaths occurring at younger ages. We calculate YLLs using the Global Burden of Disease reference life table, which represents the theoretical maximum number of years that people can expect to live.

More information

For additional background on BeBOD, please visit https://www.sciensano.be/en/projects/belgian-national-burden-disease-study.

Explore the estimates via https://burden.sciensano.be/shiny/ineq.
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