The Global Burden of Disease: A critical resource for informed policy making in the Gulf region

The Gulf countries have made tremendous improvements in their health systems in a short period of time due to extensive investments. However, during the same time period, rapid changes in lifestyle habits led to a changing burden of disease. In this manuscript, we report the burden of disease and risk factors for the Gulf countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen) measured by causes of death, years of life lost due to premature mortality (YLLs), years of life lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for the years 1990 to 2013. Our findings showed a decline of infectious diseases and a rising burden of road traffic accidents and non-communicable diseases while Yemen is still facing a large burden from communicable diseases. Our findings call for the development and implementation of programmes to reduce these burdens and engage other sectors such as the Government and the community in these efforts. These programmes need to be developed and adopted locally since many of the programmes found in the literature may not succeed in the region. Moreover, there is an urgent need for a political will and legislations to ensure their success.