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4.1 Burden of disease To ensure a health system is aligned to a country’s health challenges, policy makers must be able to compare the effects of different conditions that cause ill-health and premature death. Burden of disease analysis simultaneously compares the non-fatal burden (impact of ill-health) and fatal burden (impact of premature death) of a comprehensive list of diseases and injuries, and quantifies the contribution of various risk factors to the total burden as well as to individual diseases and injuries. The most recent global estimates come from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010, which covered 241 diseases and injuries and 57 risk factors for 187 countries for 1990, 2005 and 2010 (The Lancet 2012). To enable global comparability on such a broad scale, the study needed to introduce innovative methods as well as manage limitations in data availability. The last national burden of disease analysis that provided estimates for the Australian and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations was published in 2007, based on 2003 data. The AIHW is updating these estimates using the 2010 global burden of disease methodology where possible, with some enhancements to better suit the Australian and Indigenous contexts, and using more recent and detailed Australian data. The revised estimates are expected to be finalised in 2015