The Burden of Musculoskeletal Disease in Sierra Leone

Abstract

Resource allocation decisions in global health are made based on burden of disease data in low- and middle-income countries. The data provided here for Sierra Leone may offer some generalizable insight into the scope of the burden of musculoskeletal disease for low- and middle-income countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, and provide concrete evidence that musculoskeletal health should be included in the global health discussion. However, there may be important differences across countries in this region, and further study to elucidate these differences seems critical given the large burden of disease and the limited resources available in these regions to manage it.

Everyday burden of musculoskeletal conditions among villagers in rural Botswana: A focused ethnography

“…Focused ethnography emphasizes an anthropological approach to research while limiting the scope and duration of fieldwork to a specific programme-relevant research problem (9). Similar to the work by Elliot et al (10) in Sierra Leone for surgically treatable conditions, including MSK conditions, the qualitative data presented here aims to encourage programme development that addresses the burden of MSK conditions in Botswana and other LMICs.…”

The burden of trauma presenting to the government referral hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone: An observational study

“…Patients with less severe injury will be managed in smaller facilities or in the community without seeking care or by traditional healer. Significant barriers to accessing care exist including inadequate numbers of trained staff, lack of money to pay for treatment or transport to health facilities as well as lack of trust in the facilities [31] . All of these factors may also explain why many patients self-discharge.…”

Predictors of healthcare seeking delays among children with chronic musculoskeletal disorders in Nepal

“…For example, in a recent survey of the musculoskeletal disease burden in Nepal, Chawla and colleagues found that 69% of individuals with non-traumatic musculoskeletal disorders desired medical evaluation but were unable to access it [ 19 ]. A similar study in Sierra Leone estimated that 64% of individuals were unable to access care for their musculoskeletal conditions [ 29 ]. Given the facility-based nature of our study, we were unable to estimate the proportion of caregivers of children with chronic musculoskeletal disorders who desired but were unable to access medical care; however, these findings from Nepal and Sierra Leone suggest that this proportion is likely significant.…”