Healthcare Access and Quality Index based on mortality from causes amenable to personal health care in 195 countries and territories, 1990–2015: a novel analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

GBD 2015 Healthcare Access and Quality Collaborators (Ryan M Barber, Nancy Fullman, Reed J D Sorensen, Thomas Bollyky, Martin McKee, Ellen Nolte, Amanuel Alemu Abajobir, Kalkidan Hassen Abate, Cristiana Abbafati, Kaja M Abbas et al); The Lancet, Volume null, Issue null, DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30818-8

Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Unfortunately those affected by a rare disease need a good response from the health system throughout all life, perhaps more than those who are affected by common diseases. Although it is a paper about public health in general it could give us an idea about what we can expect from our national health systems in 195 different countries.

National levels of personal health-care access and quality can be approximated by measuring mortality rates from causes that should not be fatal in the presence of effective medical care (ie, amenable mortality). Previous analyses of mortality amenable to health care only focused on high-income countries and faced several methodological challenges. In the present analysis, we use the highly standardised cause of death and risk factor estimates generated through the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) to improve and expand the quantification of personal health-care access and quality for 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2015.