Impact of musculoskeletal disorders on healthy life expectancy in Japan

Background Musculoskeletal disorders are a key cause of morbidity in elderly people. How musculoskeletal disorders relate to healthy life expectancy remain elusive. Hence, we aimed to estimate gains in healthy life expectancy from the elimination of musculoskeletal diseases and injuries by using rec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC musculoskeletal disorders 2021-08, Vol.22 (1), p.1-661, Article 661
Main Authors: Ritsuno, Yoshihiro, Kawado, Miyuki, Morita, Mitsuhiro, Yamada, Harumoto, Kanaji, Arihiko, Nakamura, Masaya, Matsumoto, Morio, Hashimoto, Shuji, Fujita, Nobuyuki
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activities of daily living
Age groups
Back pain
Care and treatment
Disability-free life expectancy
Health aspects
Health statistics
Healthy life expectancy
Hospitals
Life expectancy
Life span
Life tables
Long term health care
Low back pain
Morbidity
Musculoskeletal diseases
Osteoporosis
Population
Prognosis
Rheumatoid arthritis
Statistics
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Summary:Background Musculoskeletal disorders are a key cause of morbidity in elderly people. How musculoskeletal disorders relate to healthy life expectancy remain elusive. Hence, we aimed to estimate gains in healthy life expectancy from the elimination of musculoskeletal diseases and injuries by using recent national health statistics data in Japan. Methods Mortality data were taken from Japanese national life tables and death certificates in 2016. Information on medical diagnoses, injuries, and activity were obtained from the 2016 Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions. We examined five disorders: rheumatoid arthritis, arthrosis, low back pain, osteoporosis, and fracture. The prevalence of limitations in activities of daily living (ADL) in the population after eliminating the disorder was estimated as the proportion of outpatients without the disorder and ADL limitations, inpatients without the disorder in hospitals and clinics, and people without the disorder who reside in long-term elderly care facilities. Results There were small gains in life expectancy from elimination of all selected musculoskeletal disorders (0.0-0.1 years). Elimination of rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, and fracture slightly increased the expected years without activity limitation (0.1-0.4) and slightly decreased years with activity limitation (0.1-0.4 years). Meanwhile, elimination of arthrosis, low back pain, and arthrosis and low back pain moderately increased expected years without activity limitation (0.3-1.5 years) and decreased years with activity limitation (0.3-1.5 years). In addition, elimination of rheumatoid arthritis, arthrosis, low back pain, osteoporosis, and fracture decreased expected years with ADL limitations (0.0-0.8 years) and non-ADL limitations (0.0-0.3 years). A combination of arthrosis and low back pain showed a moderate decrease in expected years with both ADL limitations (0.7-1.1 years) and non-ADL limitations (0.3-0.4). Conclusions These findings provide clinical evidence that among the musculoskeletal disorders low back pain and arthrosis are the key factors for the elongation of healthy life expectancy. Keywords: Disability-free life expectancy, Healthy life expectancy, Life expectancy, Activities of daily living, Health statistics
ISSN:1471-2474
1471-2474
DOI:10.1186/s12891-021-04539-4