Risk factors burden in Cuba, Latin American and the Caribbean region

<strong>Foundation:</strong> Estimating the burden of risk factors is very important because it allows identifying priorities in disease prevention and health promotion, particularly if such factors are modifiable.<br /><strong>Objective:</strong> to evaluate the relative burden of 20 level 2 factors in Cuba, the Latin American and Caribbean region in 2019. <br /><strong>Methods:</strong> descriptive research, in which, using data from the Global Health Data Exchange platform, Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (GHDx-IHME), the percentages of risk factors were calculated within each of the locations and for each of the metrics, particularly disability-adjusted life years, to facilitate the identification of priorities.<br /><strong>Results:</strong> Smoking, elevated fasting glucose, elevated body mass index, and elevated systolic blood pressure accounted for more than 50% (55.2%) of the global burden in Cuba for 2019. The main differences between the studied locations were concentrated in smoking, which occupies positions 1 and 6 in Cuba and Latin America and the Caribbean, respectively, and in child and maternal malnutrition, which occupies positions 12 and 4 in Cuba and Latin America and the Caribbean, respectively.<br /><strong>Conclusions:</strong> In addition to identifying priorities in Cuba with respect to risk factors, the convenience of using international data platforms with standardized indicators broken down by year, sex, age groups, and more than 200 countries and territories, including Cuba, was highlighted. These data, appropriately selected and processed, can be very useful for health decision-making.