A Holistic Response to Musculoskeletal Health: Implications for Global Health Policy: Comment on "From Local Action to Global Policy: A Comparative Policy Content Analysis of National Policies to Address Musculoskeletal Health to Inform Global Policy Development"

TL;DR

This commentary suggests integrating musculoskeletal health into global NCD policies and emphasizes primary healthcare for equitable solutions.

Contribution

The paper advocates for a life course and equitable approach to global musculoskeletal health policy within the NCD framework.

Findings

Musculoskeletal health policies should be integrated into the non-communicable diseases framework.

Primary healthcare and universal coverage are emphasized for equitable global policy development.

The building blocks framework has limitations in capturing comprehensive policy needs.

Abstract

This commentary is in response to the paper titled "A Comparative Policy Content Analysis of National Policies to Address Musculoskeletal Health to Inform Global Policy Development" by Schneider et al. This well-done policy content analysis identifies key themes and transferable principles to guide policy development for musculoskeletal health. In this commentary, I argue that the findings of this policy analysis should be used to develop global policies within the current framing of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), especially considering the growing burden of multimorbidity. The second point concerns the application of the building blocks framework and limitations in the use of the framework. Lastly, in this paper, I miss the needed emphasis for a global health policy that specifies primary healthcare and universal health coverage for a life course approach and an equitable response.