Global burden of neck pain in 204 countries from 1990-2019

Introduction: The estimation of global burden of neck pain is lacking. To estimate the trends and burden of neck pain by sex, age, region, and socio-demographic index (SDI). Material and methods: The incidence and disability-adjusted life years (DALY) data for neck pain were extracted from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 database. The estimated annual percent change (EAPC) and 95% con-fidence intervals (CIs) were used to assess the trends in age-standardized incidence and DALY rates from 1990 to 2019. Results: From 1990 to 2019, the global age-standardized incidence rate and age-standardized DALY rate indicated downward trends, with EAPCs of -0.06 and -0.09, respectively. The EAPCs of the age-standardized incidence rate and age-standardized DALY rate were negatively correlated with the SDI in 2019, respectively. The age-standardized incidence rates and age -standard-ized DALY rates in regions with a high SDI indicated a downward trend, in-cluding in high-income North America, Australia, and New Zealand. In 2019, the Philippines and high-income North America had the highest age -stan-dardized incidence and age-standardized DALY rates. From 1990 to 2019, the areas which increased most rapidly in the age-standardized incidence rate and age-standardized DALY rate were in tropical Latin America (EAPCs of 0.53 and 0.60, respectively). Brazil had the most rapid increase in the age-standardized incidence rate and age-standardized DALY rate (EAPCs of 0.55 and 0.61, respectively). Conclusions: The age-standardized incidence rate and age-standardized DALY rate of neck pain decreased globally from 1990 to 2019. However, there were significant differences concerning sex, age, and regional distri-butions. Therefore, targeted prevention interventions and risk factor control measures should be reasonably allocated.