Abstract

The Global Burden of Disease studies show the importance of understanding the population approach to health over the lifecourse. It distinguishes between things that kill us and those that ail us and importantly the trends in these over time. It then tries to partition risk across different sorts of factors so that policy decisions can be made about how to reduce the impact of amenable risks. The major role of the Population Health approach in determining and maintaining the good health and wellbeing of the population is slowly gaining recognition by policy makers nationally and how this approach can be developed locally needs to be discussed. For instance, over the last 25 years there has been a steady decline in premature mortality in most countries and an increase in life expectancy. However in many countries, eg in the UK the burden of disease has shifted from mortality to morbidity, with the inevitable costs in managing many more people with morbidity and increasingly multi – morbidity. What do we need to do in terms of creating the best strategy for research, translation and implementation to inform policy makers, clinicians and populations about the crucial role of preventing or ameliorating these long term conditions in creating added healthy years to life? Perhaps, we could look at the success of antenatal and newborn screening, how it creates the first and best chance to promote population health across the life-course and learn from that about how we can personalise the message and support for those whose need is greatest. A global problem needs a personalised local solution. How do we create those solutions?