DALY (Disability Adjusted Life Years) was recommended as a new indicator to measure burden of disease (BOD). Although BOD combines information from both morbidity and mortality, it only reflects the burden from the patients themselves because of their illness or death. As a common indicator, BOD should not only include the burden from the patients, but also the burden to the society around the patients, such as the input and support from the society to the ill person, and the losses from the related events. The aim of this study is to explore the scope and the magnitude of the burden to the society using stroke as an example. Results show that the burden due to time lost for caring for patients in hospitals accounts for 2.4% of total BOD (in a narrow sense), which indicates that BOD may be underestimated if the burden to the society is ignored.
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