The evolution of serious health-related suffering from 1990 to 2021: an update to The Lancet Commission on global access to palliative care and pain relief.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The Lancet Commission on global access to palliative care and pain relief introduced the concept of serious health-related suffering (SHS) to measure the worldwide dearth of palliative care. This Article provides an extended analysis of SHS from 1990 to 2021 and the corresponding global palliative care need.

Methods

This Article is the first to apply the SHS 2·0 method published in 2024, incorporating prevalence data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study to improve non-decedent estimates that account for country-level epidemiological variation; adjusting for non-decedent double counting of HIV/AIDS, cancer, cerebrovascular disease, and dementia; improving the non-decedent estimates for cancer using survivorship data from the Global C

SUBMITTER: Knaul FM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11868779 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature