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November 2010  |  Return to issue home

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IHME logo

You can participate in a landmark survey to measure people’s priorities and values on various states of health and measure the impact of diseases and health conditions worldwide.

The survey, launched by the School’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), asks people to compare two people with different health conditions and decide which person is healthier. For instance, one question might compare a person who is completely blind with another who suffers from constant and intense back pain—and then ask, "Overall, who’s healthier?"

The survey (it’s anonymous and takes about 15 minutes) is part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2010, led by IHME in collaboration with Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Queensland and the World Health Organization.

Survey Goals

IHME’s goal is to hear from at least 50,000 people worldwide, and it has been spreading the word on multiple fronts: asking companies to circulate the survey to their employees as part of corporate responsibility programs and asking organizations to link to the survey on their websites. IHME has also set up pages on Twitter and Facebook dedicated to the survey and even created a YouTube video that asks people to "Make the next 15 minutes count for global health!"

Health reporters and activists around the world have been promoting the survey, and it’s been featured on a wide array of web pages, including NPR, BioMed Central, UN Dispatch, The Global Post, Health News Review, and PLoS Medicine.

Countries in Competition

One effort that has generated a lot of buzz has been a competition between countries on the survey’s Facebook page. Every week, IHME updates a map of the world, showing participation by country, and challenges countries to make a showing. The challenge seems to be working: in early October, Bolivia was called out for being absent from the map. The very next week, surveys started to come in from Bolivia.

Take the survey and spread the word! Help IHME add to the scientific understanding of global health problems, and help policymakers make better decisions with stronger, more timely evidence. Summary survey results will be posted next spring at www.healthmetricsandevaluation.org.
Questions? E-mail us at info@globalburden.org.

November 2010  |  Return to issue home

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