Growing physical rehabilitation needs in resource-poor world regions: secondary, cross-regional analysis with data from the global burden of disease 2017

‘Materials and methods’

This comparative, secondary cross-region analysis uses data from the Global Burden of Diseases study 2017 [1990–2017], specifically varied metrics of the Years Lived with Disability (YLD) measure from the health conditions likely benefiting from physical rehabilitation.

‘Results:’

All the resource-poor world regions had significant increases (p < 0.01) in the absolute, relative, and percentage of physical rehabilitation needs [1990–2017]. Nonetheless, The Asia-Pacific region stood out with the greatest YLD Rates (i.e., per population size) in 2017, the greatest growth in YLD Rates since 1990 (38%), and an exponential growth in the rehabilitation-sensitive YLD Rates. The Asia-Pacific region also had the greatest portion of their YLDs coming from rehabilitation-sensitive conditions (72% in 2017), closely followed by the Latin America & Caribbean (67%). Nonetheless, in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, we observed the greatest percent increases in the portion of physical rehabilitation needs among all YLDs, out of lower initial values.

‘Conclusions’

An overall growth but differential patterns were observed in the evolution of physical rehabilitation needs across the resource-poor world regions.

• IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION

• Asia-Pacific and Latin America & Caribbean regions had over than two-thirds of their non-fatal health loss arising from conditions sensitive to physical rehabilitation, and important growths in rehabilitation need indicators have been observed also for South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

• The scale-up and strengthening of rehabilitation services and resources should be informed by needs-based data.

• The needs-based data from this study can inform trans-national developments and the planning of rehabilitation resources, inclusively at the world-region level.