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

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
The Lancet: Global Health; by Felicia M Knaul, Héctor Arreola-Ornelas, Xiaoxiao J Kwete, Afsan Bhadelia, William E Rosa, Michael Touchton, Oscar Méndez-Carniado, Valentina Vargas Enciso, Tania Pastrana, Joseph R Friedman, Stephen R Connor, Julia Downing, Dean T Jamison, Eric L Krakauer, David Watkins, Renzo Calderon-Anyosa, Rodrigo Garcia-Santisteban, Renu S Nargund, Jim Cleary, Liliana De Lima, Nahla Gafer, Liz Grant, Christian Ntizimira, Pedro E Pérez-Cruz, M R Rajagopal, Dingle Spence, Paul Vila, Lukas Radbruch; 3/25
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... The SHS global burden increased by 74% between 1990 and 2021 to almost 73.5 million individuals, with population growth accounting for only half of that increase. Low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) accounted for 80% of SHS, with an increase of 83% from 1990 to 2021 compared with a 46% increase in high-income countries... SHS and the associated need for palliative care is a major and persistent but not insurmountable challenge for health systems worldwide. Our findings highlight the urgency to both reduce the avoidable SHS burden through prevention and treatment, and guarantee comprehensive, universal access to palliative care as an equity and health system imperative, especially in LMICs.