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

BACKGROUND

. Low back pain is one of the major causes of morbidity worldwide. Studies on low back pain quality of care are limited. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of care of low back pain worldwide and compare gender, age, and socioeconomic groups.

METHODS

. This study used GBD data from 1990 to 2017 from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) website. Extracted data included low back pain incidence, prevalence, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and years lived with disability (YLDs). DALYs to prevalence ratio and prevalence to incidence ratio were calculated and used in the principal component analysis (PCA) to make a proxy of the quality-of-care index (QCI). Age groups, genders, and countries with different socioeconomic statuses regarding low back pain care quality from 1990 to 2017 were compared.

RESULTS

The proxy of QCI showed a slight decrease from 36.44 in 1990 to 35.20 in 2017. High- and upper-middle-income countries showed a decrease in the quality of care from 43.17 to 41.57 and from 36.37 to 36.00, respectively, from 1990 to 2017. On the other hand, low and low-middle-income countries improved, from a proxy of QCI of 20.99 to 27.89 and 27.74 to 29.36, respectively.

CONCLUSION

. Despite improvements in the quality of care for low back pain in low and lower-middle-income countries between 1990 and 2017, there is still a large gap between these countries and higher-income countries. Continued steps must be taken to reduce healthcare barriers in these countries.