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Study Design: Economic evaluation of the costs of low back pain (LBP) in Spain from a societal perspective, including direct and indirect costs, based on a national representative sample of the general population, the National Health Survey of 2017 (NHS 2017).Objective: To estimate the costs attributable to LBP in Spain.Summary Of Background Data: LBP has a high prevalence and is associated with lower quality of life, functional status, and increased use of health services. Studies that assess the socio-economic burden of LBP from a general population perspective have not been published yet in Spain.Methods: Data from NHS 2017 were used. Direct costs (consultations-general practitioner, specialist and emergency departments-, diagnostic tests, hospitalizations, physiotherapy, psychologist, and medication consumption) and indirect costs (absenteeism and presenteeism) were assessed. Multivariate models were obtained to determine the independent attributable effect of LBP in each variable. Costs were determined through existing regional healthcare services public data.Results: Prevalence of LBP was 17.1% for men and 24.5% for women, and increased with age, low educational status, higher body mass index, and was associated with less physical activity, and lower self-perceived health. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that LBP was independently associated with a significant increase both in the utilization of all health services and on work day losses. Attributable costs of LBP were 8945.6 million euros, of which 74.5% implied indirect costs, representing overall 0.68% of Spanish Gross Domestic Product.Conclusion: Spain is paying a heavy price for LBP, mostly associated with its significant impact on absenteeism and presenteeism, as well as a noteworthy effect on excess health services utilization. These findings underscore the need to address this considerable public health and social problem through interventions that address widely LBP and that have demonstrated to be cost-effective.Level Of Evidence: 3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cultural and social factors play an important role in the development and persistence of Low Back Pain (LBP). Nevertheless, there are few studies investigating differences in LBP features between countries. Objective: To determine differences in pain perception between individuals with LBP living in Brazil and Spain. Method: Thirty Spanish individuals and 30 age- and sex-comparable Brazilian individuals with LBP were recruited from the Public Health Services of both countries. The Numerical Pain Rating Scale and the pain rating index (PRI), the number of words chosen (NWC), and the present pain index (PPI) extracted from the McGill Pain Questionnaire were used to assess pain. The Oswestry Disability Index, the Short Form-36, Beck Depression Inventory-II, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were also applied. Differences between countries and the correlation between demographic and clinical variables in each country were assessed with parametric and the nonparametric tests. Results: A significant Country by Gender interaction was found for the PRI total score (P=0.038), but not for intensity of pain, disability, PPI, or NWC, in which Spanish women exhibited greater pain ratio than Spanish men (P=0.014), and no gender differences were identified in Brazilians. The Spanish group showed a consistent pattern of correlations for clinical data. Within Brazilian patients, fewer correlations were found and all of the coefficients were lower than those in the Spanish group. Conclusion: The pain perception in patients with LBP is different depending on the country. Within Spanish patients, LBP is considered a more global entity affecting multidimensional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Citizens should be involved in the public healthcare decision making process in an active manner through participation mechanisms. The objective of this study was to identify those participative processes within the Spanish public healthcare system were immigrants are involved, observe the differences between some processes and others, as well as propose proposals for improvement., Methods: A quantitative and qualitative methodology was used, using the techniques of the questionnaire and the documentary analysis. This study includes all the Spanish public healthcare system regional offices as we conducted interviews in all the regional offices, from May to October 2018, responding to it the totality of public administrations. For the evaluation we used an ad hoc questionnaire to identify any participatory policies initiated by the Spanish public health care system regional offices in which immigrants took an active role. We also conducted a desk research of the webpages of the public healthcare system regional offices. The answers to the questionnaire allowed a descriptive and qualitative analysis of the participation of immigrants in Spanish health services., Results: We found that the existing participative processes were not promoting a real active citizen´s involvement. However, there are some regions that are taking into account the immigrants opinion in order to implement new healthcare services or even to design healthcare policies., Conclusions: We have identified participative processes where immigrants are participating mostly in Andalucía, but also in Baleares, Castilla y León, Cataluña, Madrid, País Vasco, La Rioja and Comunidad Valenciana., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.