There is a worldwide effort being undertaken by the Global
Burden of Disease 2010 Project to identify detrimental health conditions
throughout the world. Seven of the studies undertaken by this group as well as
accompanying commentaries have appeared in The Lancet, a British medical
journal. The global disease burden is a computation of death and disability and
its overall cost.
One of the most interesting studies involves a massive
collaboration between the World Health Organization, the Institute for health
Metrics and Evaluation which is the coordinating center of this endeavor, the
University of Queensland School of Population Health, Harvard School of Public
Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the University of
Tokyo, Imperial College London that delineates the extent of musculoskeletal
conditions throughout the world.
The Global Burden of Disease 2010 Project found that neck
and back pain are respectively the number four and number one causes of
disability worldwide. The worldwide burden of disability from musculoskeletal
conditions is much larger than they were only 20-30 years ago. The estimates of
people suffering from musculoskeletal conditions worldwide is staggering with
an estimated 632.045 million people suffering low back pain and another 332.049
suffering neck pain.
Additionally, people are living much longer which adds to
the health burden because age is usually accompanied by pain, disability, and
disease at levels not previously seen.
Dr. Scott Haldeman holds both a Doctor of Chiropractic
degree and a degree in Medicine (meaning he is both a chiropractor and medical
doctor) who chaired the 2000-2010 Bone and Joint Decade Task Force on Neck Pain
and Its Associated Disorders of the Global Burden of Disease 2010 Project. Dr.
Haldeman notes that musculoskeletal conditions such as back pain, neck pain,
and arthritis affect more than 1.7 BILLION people throughout this world.
With over 1.7 billion people suffering from back pain, neck
pain, and arthritis that makes musculoskeletal conditions a greater impact on
people than HIV/AIDS, tropical diseases that includes malaria, disasters from
nature, and all of the neurological conditions combined. And do not confuse the
term “health burden” with deaths from these causes. It is the cost of long-term
deleterious health problems.
When considering the costs of “years living with
disability,” musculoskeletal conditions are only second to mental and
behavioral disorders. Overall, musculoskeletal conditions are the sixth leading
cause of death and disability with cardiovascular disease, neonatal diseases
(newborn baby diseases in the first month of life), neoplasms (a new growth of
tissue that serves no physiological function… think “tumor”), and mental or
behavioral disorders being a greater threat to death and disability than
musculoskeletal conditions.
Low back pain alone accounts for more of a global disease
burden than malaria, preterm birth complications, COPD (Chronic Obstructive
Pulmonary Disease such as emphysema or chronic bronchitis that is an
irreversible obstruction in the airway causing impediments to the ability to
exhale air from the lungs), tuberculosis, diabetes, or lung cancer.
When calculations are done to combine the global disease
burden of low back pain with that of neck pain these two conditions account for
more of a global disease burden than all other diseases and health depleting
conditions except ischemic heart disease. This makes the combination of low
back and neck pain a greater global disease burden than HIV/AIDS, malaria, lower
respiratory infections, stroke, breast cancer and lung cancer combined,
Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, depression, or injuries from traffic accidents.
