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. 2024 Oct 24:17:3455-3472.
doi: 10.2147/JPR.S488133. eCollection 2024.

From Pain to Progress: Comprehensive Analysis of Musculoskeletal Disorders Worldwide

Jinlei Zhou #  1 , Shanggao Xie #  1 , Sen Xu #  1 , Yuan Zhang  2 , Yanlei Li  1 , Qice Sun  2 , Jun Zhang  1   3 , Tingxiao Zhao  1
Affiliations

From Pain to Progress: Comprehensive Analysis of Musculoskeletal Disorders Worldwide

Jinlei Zhou et al. J Pain Res. .

Abstract

Objective: Comprehensive analyses of the burden of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are crucial for deepening our understanding of their impact on population health and for evaluating progress toward achieving international health goals.

Study design: A comprehensive analysis was performed using data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021.

Methods: We gathered data on the number of prevalent cases, incidences, deaths, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for MSDs from 1990 to 2021. Subsequently, crude indicators, age-standardized rates (ASRs) and estimated annual percentage change (EAPC) were calculated for MSDs from 1990 to 2021 at the global, regional, national, age and gender levels. Finally, decomposition analysis, frontier analysis, and EAPC cluster analysis were employed to examine changes in the indicators and the factors influencing them.

Results: In 2021, there were 367,193,430 incident cases and 1,686,561,517 prevalent cases of MSDs globally. Between 1990 and 2021, the age-standardized incidence rates (ASIR) declined marginally from 4641.5 to 4351.79 cases per 100,000 population [EAPC: -0.16 (-0.19 to -0.13)], while the age-standardized DALY rates (ASDR) increased from 1886.2 to 1908.87 per 100,000 population [EAPC: 0.09 (0.07 to 0.11)]. The ASRs were markedly elevated in the high SDI regions in comparison to the remaining SDI regions. The EAPC and its phase clustering analyses indicated a notable upward trajectory in the burden of MSDs in the low and middle SDI regions, particularly in Central Asia. The prevalence of MSDs is highest among individuals aged 50-59 years and among women. At the global level, the burden of MSDs is 1.43 to 2.30 times higher for women than for men.

Conclusion: From 1990 to 2021, the burden of MSDs has been concentrated in high SDI regions, with a gradual shift towards low and middle SDI regions.

Keywords: DALYs; epidemiology; global burden of disease; incidence; musculoskeletal disease; prevalence.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The global prevalence, incidence, death, DALYs and ASRs for musculoskeletal disorders between the years 1990 and 2021. (A): incidence and ASIR; (B): prevalence and ASPR; (C): death and ASMR; (D): DALYs and ASDR.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The number of prevalence, incidence, death, DALYs, and ASRs for musculoskeletal disorders in five SDI regions from 1990 to 2021. (A): ASIR, ASPR, ASMR and ASDR; (B): the number of incidences, prevalences, deaths and DALYs.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The number of prevalence, incidence, death, DALYs, and ASRs for musculoskeletal disorders in 54 GBD regions in 2021. (A): ASIR, ASPR, ASMR and ASDR; (B): the number of incidences, prevalences, deaths and DALYs.
Figure 4
Figure 4
A cluster analysis of EAPCs of ASRs in 54 GBD regions from 1990 to 2021.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The number of prevalence, incidence, deaths, DALYs and ASRs for musculoskeletal disorders in 204 countries and regions in 2021. (A): ASIR; (B): ASPR; (C): ASMR; (D): ASDR; (E): number of incidences; (F): number of prevalences; (G): number of deaths; (H): number of DALYs.
Figure 6
Figure 6
The changes in prevalence cases, incidence cases, death cases and DALYs for musculoskeletal disorders in 204 countries from 1990 to 2021. (A): change in the number of incidences; (B): change in the number of prevalences; (C): change in the number of deaths; (D): change in the number of DALYs.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The EAPC for ASPR, ASIR, ASMR, ASDR in 204 countries and regions for musculoskeletal disorders from 1990 to 2021. (A): EAPC for ASIR; (B): EAPC for ASPR; (C): EAPC for ASMR; (D): EAPC for ASPR.
Figure 8
Figure 8
The number of prevalence, incidence, death, DALYs, and ASRs for musculoskeletal disorders in different age groups in 2021. (A): ASIR, ASPR, ASMR and ASDR; (B): the number of incidences, prevalences, deaths and DALYs.
Figure 9
Figure 9
The number of prevalence, incidence, death, DALYs, and ASRs for musculoskeletal disorders in different age groups from 1990 to 2021. (A): ASIR, ASPR, ASMR and ASDR; (B): the number of incidences, prevalences, deaths and DALYs.
Figure 10
Figure 10
The number of prevalence, incidence, death, DALYs, and ASRs for musculoskeletal disorders in different sexes from 1990 to 2021. (A): ASIR, ASPR, ASMR and ASDR; (B): the number of incidences, prevalences, deaths and DALYs.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Decomposition analysis of the prevalence, incidence, death and DALYs associated with musculoskeletal diseases from 1990 to 2021. (A): the number of incidences; (B): the number of prevalences; (C): the number of deaths; (D): the number of DALYs.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Frontier analysis of ASIR and ASPR in musculoskeletal diseases from 1990 to 2021. (A) and (B): ASPR; (C) and (D): ASIR.
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