Serious health-related suffering among children aged 0-19 years from 1990-2023

The need for PC palliative care for children, globally and particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), is largely unmet and results in an excess burden of suffering. This data set provides estimates for the global burden of serious health-related suffering (SHS) among children and adolescents (0-19 years) from 1990 to 2023, providing a measurement tool essential to respond to the need for more effective palliative care PC policies and services for children. We generate refined estimates of PC need for children aged 0 to 19 by extending and applying the SHS methodology originally published by The Lancet Commission on Global Access to Palliative Care and Pain Relief and updated in 2024. This updated methods and data included convening an expert paediatric PC panel that identified the health conditions specific to children and adolescents and related parameters for estimation. Our estimates are anchored in the Global Burden of Disease study (2023) dataset and cover 1990 to 2023. The evaluation of the data set has been published in the Lancet Pediatrics, Child and Adolescent Health: