Mind the health

Regardless of age, income or geography, brain health materially affects every person's life. Brain health conditions account for roughly 10% of global disease burden, comparable to all cancers combined. While previous McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) work has shed light on the reduction of total global disease burden, determining the potential impact of evidence-based prevention or interventions for mental and substance-use disorders to measurably reduce disease burden has been an ongoing issue.

MHI is looking closer at the challenge through a series of interactives on the burden of mental and substance-use disorders. By highlighting the importance and opportunity of investing more in tackling these conditions, we advance the goal of 'adding years to life and life to years' for people with or at risk for these conditions - especially because mental and substance-use disorders are highly treatable.

The unit of this MHI and Healthy Brains Global Initiative analysis is disability-adjusted life year, a measure commonly used in public health to quantify the burden of disease. It measures how many years of healthy life in an illustrative year are affected by the disorder, either by early mortality or by living a lower quality of life with the disease.


From 'Prioritising Brain Health: Scaling What Works to Add Years to Life and Life to Years', McKinsey & Co