Burden of disease of chronic pain in Ecuador

ABSTRACT

Objectives

To estimate the burden of disease related to chronic pain in Ecuador.

Methods

We used Global Burden of Disease (GBD) methods to estimated disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) related to chronic pain in Ecuador related to lumbar pain, osteoarthritis, post-herpetic neuralgia, diabetic neuropathy, cancer-related pain, and other musculoskeletal pain. We estimated the prevalent cases by sex and age group using literature data. We only estimated years lived with disability using disability weights obtained from the GBD, with the assumption that no premature death would be related to pain. We used a prevalence-based approach to estimate cases by sex and age group using literature, without discounting or age adjustment. We calculated total DALYs and DALYs/100,000 inhabitants.

Results

Our estimated yielded a total of 3,644,108 patients with chronic pain. They would produce 256,090 DALYs or 1,483 DALYs/100,000 inhabitants attributable to chronic pain. Low back pain, osteoarthritis and cancer-related pain were the drivers of DALY production.

Conclusions

Chronic pain is an important source of burden of disease. It is comparable to other important causes such as headaches, stroke, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, among others. Low back pain, osteoarthritis and other musculoskeletal pain were the biggest contributors given their high prevalence.

KEYWORDS:

• Burden of disease
• chronic pain
• disability-adjusted life years
• pain
• Ecuador

Declaration of interest

P Lasalvia, Y Gil-Rojas and D Rosselli declare employment at NeuroEconomix. NeuroEconomix received funding for this project. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Author contributions

P Lasalvia and Y Gil-Rojas contributed to the conception of study, data extraction, data analysis, and drafting of the manuscript and final manuscript review. D Rosselli contributed to the conception of the study and final revision of the manuscript. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript for publication.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14737167.2023.2193689

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this project was provided by Grünenthal Pharma, S.A. Colombia. The investigation and the reports of that investigation were in no way dictated or influenced by Grünenthal Pharma, S.A. Colombia.