Abstract: Objective To assess the buden of disease for traumatic paraplegia; Methods 26 coal mines were selected to collect data on incidence and prevalence oftraumatic paraplegia. Activities of daily life of the patients were calculated based on a standard questionnaire. DALY was used as an index to measure the burden of disease. Results 325 patients were distributed in the five coal bureaus in 1996.The average burden of disease was 32.55 DALY per 1,000(3915.72/121410). Among the 5 Coal Bureaus, the burden of disease in Tongchuan was the highest (54.47 DALY per l,000 workers), followed by Yangquan (27.85), Fengfeng (26.60), Luan (15.1) and Jincheng(11.71). Conclusion DALY fits to evaluation of the burden of disease in coal mines. The burden of disease for traumatic paraplegia varies grandly among the all coal bureaus searched.