2 - Global Burden of Musculoskeletal Injuries

Abstract

Injuries are a leading cause of death and disability around the world. In 2010 injuries killed 4.6 million people globally, corresponding to a rate of 64.4 per 100,000 people. Over the past two decades, global population health is in the midst of a transition away from communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritious disorders and toward noncommunicable diseases and injuries. However, despite the shifts in communicable causes, injuries are a major threat even in the poorest regions of the world. Most injury deaths occur among young adults. In 2016 the overall injury death rate and the injury health burden (i.e., disability-adjusted life years lost) among men were over twice that among women. Despite the availability of global data about injuries in general, estimates of the global burden of musculoskeletal injuries can only be inferred. Fractures result in 13.9 million severe nonfatal injuries, are 40% of all nonfatal injuries, and account for 40% of the health burden (years of life with disability) of nonfatal injuries.