Back Pain imposes High Costs on Society

Back pain is one of the most widespread public health issues in Denmark. Around one million Danes have either experienced back pain within the past two weeks or are currently suffering, or have previously suffered, from a herniated disc.

The high number of individuals suffering from back pain leads to an annual additional societal cost of DKK 33.5 billion in lost productivity compared to those without lower back pain.

The analysis is based on responses from the 2021 National Health Profile, in which 174,800 individuals aged 16 and above reported whether they had experienced lower back pain.

Most of the costs stem from newly awarded disability retirements. Furthermore, long-term sick leave and premature death also make significant contributions to the overall productivity loss.

Early Retirement is the largest contributor to production loss

The greatest productivity losses are observed among men aged 50-66 and women aged 30-49.

"Disability retirement accounts for the majority of the total productivity loss, and here women stand out. The productivity loss for women due to newly awarded disability retirements is three times higher than for men," explains researcher Isabelle Pascale Mairey, who led the analysis.

The analysis was conducted for the Danish Rheumatism Association.

The figure below illustrates the additional productivity loss resulting from long-term sick leave, disability retirement, and premature death among individuals with lower back pain in 2021 compared to those without lower back pain, broken down by gender.

Additional Costs in Lost Productivity

The extra costs in lost productivity are calculated for individuals with lower back pain compared to individuals without lower back pain, adjusted for gender, age, education, and comorbidity excluding rheumatic diseases.

Contact: Researcher Isabelle Pascale Mairey, Tel.: +45 6550 7709, Email: ipa@sdu.dk, National Institute of Public Health, SDU.