OBJECTIVES : The aim of this study was to review the published data on disease of burden performed in China during the last three decades for guiding further appropriate development of research.

METHODS : A systematic search was carried out in electronic databases including Chinese (CNKI, VIP, Wanfang) and English databases (PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane) to identify studies published between 1990-2020. The inclusion criteria were those original studies assessing disease burden of cost of illness, quality of life (QoL), and Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY) in Chinese population.

RESULTS : Among 1,368 identified papers (232 English, 1136 Chinese) for review, neoplasm 267 (19.52%) and cardiovascular disease (182, 13,3%) were the two most frequently investigated disease groups, followed by diabetes (82, 5.99%). Beside to these common non-communicate chronic disease (NCD), a large number of studies were engaging in reporting various sorts of communicable diseases (312, 22.81%), among which burden of tuberculosis (72, 5.26%) and hepatitis (52, 3.80%) screened the most. Burden of injury/accident (n=145, 10.6%) has also drawn increasing attention since their 1^st study published in 2003, with a publication peak reaching at 2017 (n=27). It however worthy mentioning that, most of studies both in English (205, 88.4%) and Chinese (876, 77.1%) were emerging during period of 2010-2020.

CONCLUSIONS : Research interests on disease burden has emerging rapidly in the last few decades in China, with an focus for NCD. However, results varied largely due to discrepancies in study designs and heterogeneity of sample characteristics. There is still an urgent need to understand the overall cost of various diseases in China through well-designed research, especially for rare diseases.