GHTM

Global Health and Tropical Medicine

  • GHTM
    • Vision
    • Mission
    • Governance
    • Scientific Advisory Board
  • News
    • Outreach
    • Events
      • GHTM Sessions
      • Workshops
    • Articles
    • Jobs
  • Research
    • Cross-cutting issues
      • Global Pathogen Dispersion and Population Mobility
      • Drug Discovery and Drug Resistance
      • Diagnostics
      • Public Health Information
      • Fair Research Partnerships
    • Research Groups
      • PPS – Population health, policies and services
      • THOP – TB, HIV and opportunistic diseases and pathogens
      • VBD – Vector borne diseases and pathogens
      • IHC – Individual health care
    • Research in numbers
      • 2020
      • 2019
      • 2018
      • 2017
    • Projects
      • Ongoing Projects
    • Members
      • Population health, policies and services
        • PPS PhD members
        • PPS non PhD members
      • TB, HIV and opportunistic diseases and pathogens
        • THOP PhD members
        • THOP non PhD members
      • Vector-borne diseases and pathogens
        • VBD PhD members
        • VBD non PhD members
      • Individual Health Care
        • IHC PhD members
        • IHC non PhD members
      • Technical / administrative support
  • Publications
  • Education
    • Master Theses
    • PhD Theses
  • Services
Home / Publicações / Global need: including rehabilitation in health system strengthening

Global need: including rehabilitation in health system strengthening

  • Autores: Tiago Jesus, Michel Landry
  • Ano de Publicação: 2021
  • Journal: The Lancet, 397(10275), pp 665-666
  • Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00207-5

CORRESPONDENCE

Apropos «Global estimates of the need for rehabilitation based on the Global Burden of Disease study 2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019»

We read with great enthusiasm Alarcos Cieza and colleagues’1 analysis of data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019 to estimate that 2·41 billion people (95% uncertainty interval 2·34–2·50 billion) worldwide would benefit from rehabilitation services. This comprehensive work quantifies an increasing burden of non-fatal health losses potentially addressed by rehabilitation services. Cieza and colleagues’ work complements findings from our series of secondary analyses of GBD 2017,2, 3, 4 in which we focused on an extensive set of health conditions that could benefit from physical rehabilitation (excluding mental health and sensory impairments). In years of life lived with disability (YLDs), we found a 66% global increase from 1990 to 2017 specifically in physical rehabilitation needs,3 whereas Cieza and colleagues1 found a 69% global increase from 1990 to 2019 for key rehabilitation-sensitive conditions.

Similar to Cieza and colleagues’ results, we found that musculoskeletal conditions largely contributed (ie, by 53%) to physical rehabilitation needs worldwide.4 These results underscore the high and increasing global need for rehabilitation services, and the substantial contribution of musculoskeletal conditions to these needs.

Cieza and colleagues1 also found that global YLDs from rehabilitation-sensitive neurological, cardiovascular, and neoplasm conditions more than doubled between 1990 and 2019 (104%, 106%, and 129% increases, respectively). In turn, we observed substantial increases from 1990 to 2017 for neurological, cardiovascular, and neoplasm conditions in YLD rates (ie, YLDs per 100 000 people; 31%, 23%, and 62% increases, respectively).4 Among the five largest emergent economies, rehabilitation needs from neurological conditions grew especially in China (ie, by 113% per capita).2 Physical rehabilitation needs per capita grew by 17% worldwide.3

Analogous with the Article by Cieza and colleagues,1 we found that age-standardised values either did not change or modestly changed with time,2, 3, 4 meaning that population growth and ageing are key determinants of rising rehabilitation needs. As the global population ages, this trend will probably endure, adding further rehabilitation needs. Furthermore, in an ecological study across 35 high-income countries, using data on the physical and occupational therapy workforce supply and needs-based data from GBD 2017, we found no relationship among supply and need variables when adjusted for sociodemographic covariates.5 Indeed, important supply–need disparities were found even within high-income countries,5 and across low-income and middle-income countries where rehabilitation resources are scarce.

Overall, Cieza and colleagues1 provide an up-to-date and detailed estimation of global rehabilitation needs; we hope that the growing body of data and knowledge on unmet rehabilitation needs can mainstream rehabilitation as a key element of health system strengthening worldwide.

 

KEYWORDS

rehabilitation needs; rehabilitation services; neurological conditions; cardiovascular conditions; neoplasm conditions; musculoskeletal conditions.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Events

PhD student from GHTM attended the India|EMBO Lecture Course

Ronise Silva, a PhD student under the Tropical Diseases and Global Health program at the Institute … [Read More...]

Registration for “Python applied to Biomedical Sciences” course is open!

GHTM informs that registration for the introduction course on Python programming language is … [Read More...]

BIOTROP, the biobank of GHTM-IHMT-NOVA, represented at the inauguration of the European headquarters of MIRRI-ERIC

  The Coordinator of the Biotropical Resources biobank (BIOTROP), Ana Paula Arez, and the … [Read More...]

Ciara O’Sullivan visited GHTM-IHMT and strengthened international relationship

  As part of the RESMALDETECT Exploratory Project, the GHTM-IHMT received a visit from Ciara … [Read More...]

Call for PhD Studentships

The Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (IHMT), Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA), through … [Read More...]

IHMT | GHTM – APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN!

IHMT | GHTM - Applications are open for three research vacancies:   One position - PhD … [Read More...]

About GHTM

GHTM is a R&D Center that brings together researchers from IHMT with a track record in Tropical Medicine and International/Global Health. It aims at strengthening Portugal's role as a leading partner in the development and implementation of a global health research agenda. Our evidence-based interventions contribute to the promotion of equity in health and to improve the health of populations.

Contacts

Rua da Junqueira, 100
1349-008 Lisboa
Portugal
+351 213 652 600
+351 213 632 105

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Subscribe Newsletter

  • How to get to GHTM/IHMT
  • GHTM Sessions
  • Research Groups
  • Cross-cutting issues
© Copyright 2023 IHMT-UNL Todos os Direitos Reservados.
  • Universidade Nova de Lisboa
  • Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

    Project UID/Multi/04413/2013