The economic burden of back pain in the UK

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a 'cost-of-illness' study of the socio-economic costs of back pain in the UK. It estimates the direct health care cost of back pain in 1998 to be pound1632 million. Approximately 35% of this cost relates to services provided in the private sector and thus is most likely paid for directly by patients and their families. With respect to the distribution of cost across different providers, 37% relates to care provided by physiotherapists and allied specialists, 31% is incurred in the hospital sector, 14% relates to primary care, 7% to medication, 6% to community care and 5% to radiology and imaging used for investigation purposes. However, the direct cost of back pain is insignificant compared to the cost of informal care and the production losses related to it, which total pound10668 million. Overall, back pain is one of the most costly conditions for which an economic analysis has been carried out in the UK and this is in line with findings in other countries. Further research is needed to establish the cost-effectiveness of alternative back pain treatments, so as to minimise cost and maximise the health benefit from the resources used in this area.

A qualitative exploration of people's experiences of pain neurophysiological education for chronic pain: The importance of relevance for the individual

“…Many people with chronic pain become disabled, resulting in a loss of identity, difficulty coping and a reduction in quality of life (Maniadakis & Gray, 2000). It is recommended that interventions that empower patients and encourage self-management should be utilised (Gifford, 1998;Frost et al, 2004;Turk & McCarberg, 2005).…”

Transcriptional profiling distinguishes inner and outer annulus fibrosus from nucleus pulposus in the bovine intervertebral disc

“…Low back pain is a large socio-economic problem and is correlated with degeneration of the intervertebral disc (IVD) [1,2]. The IVD consists of the central nucleus pulposus (NP) and is surrounded by the ligamentous annulus fibrosus (AF).…”

Early retirement and the financial assets of individuals with back problems

“…It is recognised internationally that back problems are a major source of disability and can lead to lost labour force participation due to both retirement and absenteeism [1,9,10,27], with back problems keeping more Australians aged 45-64 years out of the workforce than any other condition [15]. Most of the studies that assess the indirect costs of back problems focus on the time lost to work absence as the main cost of back problems [1,5,9,12,13,28].…”

“…Numerous reports have indicated that the indirect costs of back pain are much larger than the direct medical and compensation costs [7,9]. Most of the studies undertaken in Australia and Europe have attributed most of these indirect costs to the work absenteeism caused by back problems [1,5,7,[9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

“…Most of the studies undertaken in Australia and Europe have attributed most of these indirect costs to the work absenteeism caused by back problems [1,5,7,[9][10][11][12][13][14]. Extreme back pain can lead to early retirement, and 41.4% of Australians aged 45-64 years who identify back pain as their main health problem are not in the workforce [15].…”