Measuring Disability-adjusted Life Years (DALYs) Due to Low Back Pain in Malta

Overview

Journal Arch Public Health

Publisher Biomed Central

Date 2020 Aug 8

PMID 32760586

Citations 5

Authors

Sarah Cuschieri

Grant M A Wyper

Neville Calleja

Vanessa Gorasso

Brecht Devleesschauwer

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Low back pain (LBP) is a public health concern and a leading cause of ill health. A high prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints has been reported for Malta, a small European state. The aim was to estimate for the first time the burden of LBP at population level in Malta in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and compare to estimates obtained by the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study.

Method: The Maltese European Health Interview Survey dataset for 2015 provided the LBP prevalence data through representative self-reported history of chronic LBP within the past 12 months in combination with limitations to daily activities. Proportions of LBP severity (with and without leg pain - mild, moderate, severe and most severe) and their corresponding disability weights followed values reported in the GBD study. Years lived with disability (YLD) for LBP were estimated for the whole population by age and sex. Since LBP does not carry any mortality, YLD reflected DALYs. The estimated local DALYs per 100,000 were compared to the GBD 2017 study results for Malta for the same year.

Results: LBP with activity limitation gave a point prevalence of 6.4% (95% Uncertainty Interval [UI] 5.7-7.2%) (5.6% males [95% UI 4.6-6.6%]; 7.3% females [95% UI 6.2-8.4%]), contributing to a total of 23,649 (95% UI 20,974-26,463) Maltese suffering from LBP. The LBP DALYs were of 716 (95% UI 558-896) per 100,000. Females experienced higher LBP burden (739 [95% UI 575-927] DALYs per 100,000) than males (693 [95% UI 541-867] DALYs per 100,000). Our DALY estimates were lower than those reported by the GBD 2017 study (i.e., 1829 [95% UI 1300-2466] per 100,000).

Conclusions: LBP imposes a substantial burden on the Maltese population. Differences observed between national estimates and those of the GBD study suggest the integration of updated locally sourced data into the model and encouraging local contributors in order to improve the DALY estimates of each country.

Citing Articles

Comparison of a 30-year trend of incidence, prevalence, and DALY due to low back pain in Iran with Low- and High-SDI countries; Based on GBD study 2019 Data.

Daryabor A, Baghban A Arch Acad Emerg Med. 2024; 12(1):e39.

PMID: 38737131 PMC: 11088793. DOI: 10.22037/aaem.v12i1.2257.

The quality of care index for low back pain: a systematic analysis of the global burden of disease study 1990-2017.

Ghafouri M, Ghasemi E, Rostami M, Rouhifard M, Rezaei N, Nasserinejad M Arch Public Health. 2023; 81(1):167.

PMID: 37700341 PMC: 10496194. DOI: 10.1186/s13690-023-01183-3.

Conducting national burden of disease studies and knowledge translation in eight small European states: challenges and opportunities.

Cuschieri S, AlKerwi A, Economou M, Idavain J, Lai T, Lesnik T Health Res Policy Syst. 2022; 20(1):113.

PMID: 36271370 PMC: 9587663. DOI: 10.1186/s12961-022-00923-1.

Estimating the direct Covid-19 disability-adjusted life years impact on the Malta population for the first full year.

Cuschieri S, Calleja N, Devleesschauwer B, Wyper G BMC Public Health. 2021; 21(1):1827.

PMID: 34627228 PMC: 8501913. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-021-11893-4.

Back pain: An aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic? A Malta perspective.

Grech S, Borg J, Cuschieri S Musculoskeletal Care. 2021; 20(1):145-150.

PMID: 34092018 PMC: 8242888. DOI: 10.1002/msc.1574.

References

Maertens de Noordhout C, Van Oyen H, Speybroeck N, Devleesschauwer B . Changes in health in Belgium, 1990-2016: a benchmarking analysis based on the global burden of disease 2016 study. BMC Public Health. 2018; 18(1):775. PMC: 6011511. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-018-5708-y. View

Salomon J, Haagsma J, Davis A, Maertens de Noordhout C, Polinder S, Havelaar A . Disability weights for the Global Burden of Disease 2013 study. Lancet Glob Health. 2015; 3(11):e712-23. DOI: 10.1016/S2214-109X(15)00069-8. View

Kent P, Keating J . The epidemiology of low back pain in primary care. Chiropr Osteopat. 2005; 13:13. PMC: 1208926. DOI: 10.1186/1746-1340-13-13. View

. Life expectancy and disease burden in the Nordic countries: results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017. Lancet Public Health. 2019; 4(12):e658-e669. PMC: 7098475. DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(19)30224-5. View

. Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 354 diseases and injuries for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet. 2018; 392(10159):1789-1858. PMC: 6227754. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32279-7. View

Wyper G, Grant I, Fletcher E, Chalmers N, McCartney G, Stockton D . Prioritising the development of severity distributions in burden of disease studies for countries in the European region. Arch Public Health. 2020; 78:3. PMC: 6950931. DOI: 10.1186/s13690-019-0385-6. View

Cuschieri S, Vassallo J, Calleja N, Camilleri R, Borg A, Bonnici G . Prevalence of obesity in Malta. Obes Sci Pract. 2017; 2(4):466-470. PMC: 5192534. DOI: 10.1002/osp4.77. View

Hurwitz E, Randhawa K, Torres P, Yu H, Verville L, Hartvigsen J . The Global Spine Care Initiative: a systematic review of individual and community-based burden of spinal disorders in rural populations in low- and middle-income communities. Eur Spine J. 2017; 27(Suppl 6):802-815. DOI: 10.1007/s00586-017-5393-z. View

Buchbinder R, van Tulder M, Oberg B, Costa L, Woolf A, Schoene M . Low back pain: a call for action. Lancet. 2018; 391(10137):2384-2388. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30488-4. View

10.

Van Oyen H, Van der Heyden J, Perenboom R, Jagger C . Monitoring population disability: evaluation of a new Global Activity Limitation Indicator (GALI). Soz Praventivmed. 2006; 51(3):153-61. DOI: 10.1007/s00038-006-0035-y. View

11.

Steenstra I, Verbeek J, Heymans M, Bongers P . Prognostic factors for duration of sick leave in patients sick listed with acute low back pain: a systematic review of the literature. Occup Environ Med. 2005; 62(12):851-60. PMC: 1740930. DOI: 10.1136/oem.2004.015842. View

12.

Hoy D, March L, Brooks P, Blyth F, Woolf A, Bain C . The global burden of low back pain: estimates from the Global Burden of Disease 2010 study. Ann Rheum Dis. 2014; 73(6):968-74. DOI: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2013-204428. View

13.

Lidgren L . The bone and joint decade 2000-2010. Bull World Health Organ. 2004; 81(9):629. PMC: 2572548. View