Crisis: what crisis?

Abstract

There is a large economic cost associated with low back pain. In 1994 its cost to the United Kingdom (UK) was estimated by the UK Clinical Standards Advisory Group report to be nearly £6,000 million (ECU 8,350 million) annually. This principally consists of the indirect costs of lost production and disability payments rather than direct health service costs. A re-examination of the assumptions in the report shows that these costs appear to overestimate the economic cost of back pain by an unquantified, but possibly large, amount. This may restrict the benefit of introducing more effective treatments for back pain.

Epidemiology of low back pain

“…In 1994 the cost oflow back pain to the United Kingdom was estimated at 6000 million pounds (ECU 8350 million, $10 billion) (Underwood 1998). This estimate was based on combining health care costs, Department of Social Security (DSS) payments and lost production.…”

The Fear Avoidance Model Disentangled: Improving the Clinical Utility of the Fear Avoidance Model

“…1,2 Despite increased understanding of the factors contributing to the development of chronic pain, there has been only a moderate improvement in the successful management thereof. 3,4 The prevalence of chronic low back pain (LBP) has remained more or less constant over the past 2 decades, [5][6][7] and interventions have shown at best only moderate effects in reducing pain and disability.…”

A Cross‐sectional Survey of the Clinical and Psychological Features of Low Back Pain and Consequent Work Handicap: Use of the Quebec Task Force Classification

“…14 This scores between O (no disability) and 24 (maximal disability). The Modified Somatic Perception Questionnaire (MSPQ)' 5 was used to measure heightened autonomic or somatic awareness, or 'somatic anxiety'. This scores between O (no somatic anxiety) and 39 (maximal somatic anxiety).…”

“…Low back pain (LBP) is considered to be a health problem of epidemic proportions in the UK, 1 western 2 and other industrialised countries 3 with enormous economic consequences due to sickness absence with loss of productivity, cost of associated state benefits and healthcare costs. Estimates of costs to the UK economy may be as much as £1.4 billion in benefits, £480 million in healthcare, and £3.8 billion in lost production, 4 although these estimates have been questioned 5 . The Clinical Standards Advisory Group (CSAG) highlighted the importance of back pain as one of the commonest medical reasons for work loss in western countries including the UK 4…”