The COVID-19 pandemic intensified discussions around health and well-being. The general method to gauge the health of a populace is to measure its mortality or life expectancy. But a more comprehensive understanding must also include morbidity – the incidence of diseases – to account for years of life partially lost.
A holistic approach to estimate the burden of diseases incorporates both mortality and morbidity, and is measured with a metric called disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).
Despite remarkable improvements in life expectancy and reductions in child mortality rates in the last few decades, India still faces a significant battle against various health issues. One worrying feature of the public health spectrum is the rapid increase in the prevalence of some non-communicable diseases, along with the persistence of some communicable diseases.
