The Global Burden of Disease Epidemiology—When Big Data Impute the Nonexistent
Abstract
This Viewpoint discusses concerns about the data quality of the Global Burden of Disease study with respect to incidence estimates of child and adolescent mental health disorders, such as autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, in low- and middle-income countries.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
GBD estimated AUD using ICD-10 codes rather than the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, which can lead to an underestimation of the true burden of AUD, ALD, and alcohol-attributable liver cancer.
“Additionally, GBD estimated AUD using ICD-10 codes rather than the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition. This can lead to an underestimation of the true burden of AUD, ALD, and alcohol-attributable liver cancer in these regions [1,45].”
From Global epidemiology of alcohol-related liver disease, liver cancer, and alcohol use disorder, 2000–2021 (2025) · cites this paper as [45]
Cites
Maenner, M. J., Shaw, K. A., Bakian, A. V., Bilder, D. A., Durkin, M. S., Esler, A., Furnier, S. M., Hallas, L., Hall-Lande, J., Hudson, A., et al. (2021) · MMWR. Surveillance Summaries · doi:10.15585/mmwr.ss7011a1 · Cited by 1,818 · see citing works
Social Determinants of Mental Health: Where We Are and Where We Need to Go
Alegria, M. M., NeMoyer, A., Falgas‐Bagué, I., Wang, Y., & Álvarez, K. (2018) · Current Psychiatry Reports · doi:10.1007/s11920-018-0969-9 · Cited by 1,006 · see citing works
Roman-Urrestarazu, A., van Kessel, R., Allison, C., Matthews, F. E., Brayne, C., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2021) · JAMA Pediatrics · doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.0054 · Cited by 242 · see citing works
Self-citationEpidemiological surveys of ASD: advances and remaining challenges
Fombonne, E., MacFarlane, H., & Salem, A. C. (2021) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-021-05005-9 · Cited by 147 · see citing works
Systematic review of general burden of disease studies using disability-adjusted life years
Polinder, S., Haagsma, J. A., Stein, C., & Havelaar, A. H. (2012) · Population Health Metrics · doi:10.1186/1478-7954-10-21 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
Optimising adolescent wellbeing in a digital age
Holly, L., Wong, B. L. H., van Kessel, R., Awah, I., Agrawal, A., & Ndili, N. (2023) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj-2021-068279 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Chinawa, J. M., Manyike, P. C., Aniwada, E. C., Chinawa, A. T., Obu, H. A., Odetunde, O. I., Nwokocha, A. R. C., & Ibekwe, R. R. (2017) · African Health Sciences · doi:10.4314/ahs.v16i4.8 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Epidemiological Health Information
Vaughan, J. P., Victora, C. G., & Chowdhury, R. (2021) · doi:10.1093/med/9780192848741.003.0004 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Danpanichkul, P., Díaz, L. A., Suparan, K., Tothanarungroj, P., Sirimangklanurak, S., Auttapracha, T., Blaney, H. L., Sukphutanan, B., Pang, Y., Kongarin, S., et al. (2025) · Clinical and Molecular Hepatology · doi:10.3350/cmh.2024.0835 · Cited by 85 · see citing works
- Authors
- Roman-Urrestarazu, A., & van Kessel, R.
- Affiliations
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Department of Health Policy, LSE Health, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom
- Venue
- JAMA Pediatrics
- Publisher
- American Medical Association (AMA)
- Published
- 2024-04-01
- Volume
- 178
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 331
- ISSN
- 1072-4710 (ISSN-L)
- 2168-6203
- OpenAlex
- W4391930820
- Cited by
- 11
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 6
- FWCI
- 5.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) (acceptedVersion)
- Research Publications (Maastricht University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health and Medical Studies
- Keywords
- global burden of disease, data quality, incidence estimates, child psychopathology, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, low- and middle-income countries
- MeSH terms
- Autism Spectrum Disorder, Global Burden of Disease, Big Data, Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity, Humans, Global Health, Prevalence, Cost of Illness
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
