Gender disparities of chronic musculoskeletal disorder burden in the elderly Ghanaian population: study on global ageing and adult health (SAGE WAVE 1)
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2015
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BioMed Central
Abstract
Background: Traditionally, non-communicable diseases including musculoskeletal disorders have not been a
priority in low-and-middle income countries. The main aim of this paper is to assess age and gender specific
burden by estimating the current prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and associated risk factors in the
elderly Ghanaian population.
Methods: Between May 2007 and June 2008, the World Health Organization conducted a nationwide study
on AGEing (SAGE) and Adult Health in Ghana. The study employed a multistage cluster sampling strategy to
identify participants by stratifying the population by age and setting. A structured questionnaire was used for
data collection. A Poisson regression model was fitted with robust error variance. Prevalence estimates took
into account the complex survey design and sampling weights. Statistical significance was considered at p ≤ 0.05
significance level. Statistical analysis was performed with STATA version 11.2.
Results: The prevalence rates of chronic back pain and chronic arthritis/joints pain were higher in women than
men. The overall crude prevalence’s rates were 28.2 and 10.7 % for chronic back pain and chronic arthritis/joints
pain respectively. Substantial differences existed between men and women in terms of socio-economic status,
education level and occupational status. Women with primary education had a chronic back pain prevalence of 36.2 %
(95 % CI; 29.2, 43.3) and chronic arthritis/joints pain prevalence of 15.8 % (95 % CI; 11.1, 20.6) while their male
counterparts had prevalence rates of 29.0 % (95 % CI; 23.4, 34.5) and 9.8 % (95 % CI; 6.4, 13.2) respectively. Residence
(rural and urban) did not appear to influence the prevalence of chronic back pain and arthritis/joints pain.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest the existence of sex differences in chronic back pain and chronic arthritis/joint
pain in the elderly population in Ghana after adjustment for demographic and socio-economic factors. It indicates the
existence of inequalities in health between elderly men and women with women suffering more from chronic back
pain and chronic arthritis/joints pain.
Description
This article is published by BioMed Central.
Keywords
Citation
Nakua et al. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders (2015) 16:204 DOI 10.1186/s12891-015-0666-3