In this meta-analysis of nearly 4 million articles, the authors find articles in MEDLINE for each zone of the disease, including systematic reviews, randomized controlled trials and animal studies. The disease area is easy to determine because each summary is indexed by MEDLINE National Library of Medicine (NLM) Medical Subject Headings; and connected to each element to their country of origin. We fixed each element of the 19 major diseases and disabilities, categories and each category has ordered according to their contribution 2,004 Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). Measuring the burden of disease is DALY useful because it combines a common unit of measurement, the mortality and morbidity; Traditionally, the years of life lost (YLL), the effects of years of healthy life lost disability resist.
Evans and his colleagues expected to find some correlation between DALYs caused by each disease category and the total number of 2,005 scientific articles. However, this does not happen, and malignant tumors (including cancer) and endocrine disorders (such as diabetes) were significantly over-represented in the research literature on the global disease burden. However, are "calculated market" in the world for the treatment of any disease, the multiplication of local disease burden in each country per capita wealth in this country market size is positively correlated with the level of research. linear correlation in the height of a further 3 5% of the research articles for each $ 10 billion lost disease (as opposed to DALY). DALY infectious diseases have shown a strong correlation with poverty, while cancer was positively correlated with wealth - at least at the national level. In essence, "[i] nfectious diseases such as diarrhea, malaria and HIV receive stock in less developed countries much more natural, while cancers have a greater weight in the more developed countries with higher life expectancy" or in the country, "[f] all 10 million DALYs lost disease in the country, the number of articles by researchers in the country increased by 73.9% published. "- indicates. local biomedical research be conducted by the local health needs, but the authors show that only "some developed countries produce proportionally the vast majority of biomedical research" - probably because research is expensive and requires a lot of infrastructure.
This document reveals a wide disparity in biomedical research; It "shows that the production of health research in the world is correlated with the market for the treatment and not the burden of disease." Local health needs tend to conduct research on the site. However, developing countries have different health needs and patterns of disease, the rich and developed countries. And a handful of developed countries produce far more research than the rest of the world. Therefore, "the existing global health research less on the needs of the poor."
Others suggest that the health problems of developing countries are almost exclusively due to the poor economic development, lack of hygiene, polluted air and water, and poor health strategies. The argument is that we know what we need to know about diseases and health problems in the Third World. , Giving but the authors state that "underestimates the ability that we lack sufficient for an intervention in disadvantaged areas or just in the rich countries have different knowledge. Example, recent research shows that the hydration of the child, a measure long emergency for children with infectious diseases in poor rises care resources in sub-Saharan Africa promoted. A conclusion of the Ugandan Dr. Peter Oluput-Oluput words, the short-term mortality, that "we have more research to do Africa for the Africans. '"
The authors support the globalization of research attention in the rich countries and the expansion of scientific research capacity in developing countries.
- Ravendra Naidoo
MedPage Today: 
