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Table 1.
Break down of back pain related costs in UK spend in a per year basis
£512 million on hospital costs for back pain patients.
£141 million on GP consultations for back pain.
£150.6 million on physiotherapy treatments for back pain.
In the private health care sector £565 million is spent on back pain every
year.
This brings the health care costs for back pain to a total of £1.6 billion
per year.
In addition there are other (indirect) costs. The Health and Safety
Executive estimates that musculoskeletal disorders, which includes back
pain costs UK employers between £590 million and £624 million per
year.
The total costs of back pain correspond to between 1% and 2% of gross
national product (GDP). Recent reviews suggest that spinal pain utilises
between 1-2% of Gross National Product in OECD countries [48].
Other European countries report similar high costs; back pain related
costs in The Netherlands in 1991 were more than 4 billion euro. For
Sweden in 1995 this was more than 2 billion euro
Accordingly, in the United States, based on the American Chiropractic Association
[2], in 2008 the relative figures rose to 31 million Americans experiencing back pain
at any given time, and at least $50 billion are spend each year for back pain related
costs, a more than 50 % increase as opposed to 1990 costs.
Back-pain: Work Impact.
In addition to the impact back pain has in a country's
population and economy, it also seems to be a feature influencing a patient's ability to
work, with nearly 5 million working days to be lost as a result of back pain in 2003-
04, constituting back pain as the number 2 reason for long term sickness in much of
the UK, based on Backcare [3]. Finally, back pain can have a significant impact on
people's lives by affecting day to day activities on a personal level, something that
reduces life quality, as well as social relationships. Without proper diagnosis, treat-
ment and monitoring, back pain can prevent patients from doing essential daily activi-
ties (such as collecting water, harvesting, and carrying heavy objects, including
children) central in maintaining their homes and livelihoods, specifically for people in
developing countries [48]. To this end, back pain is considered to be the second only
to the cold as the most common disease in humans, and together with heart disease,
arthritis or other joint disease, backache is one of the most common causes of morbid-
ity, disability, and perceived threat to health [23].
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