Following the December 13 publication of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 (GBD 2010) in The Lancet, The Bone and Joint Decade (BJD) issued a call for urgent action by the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and by national governments and for explicit plans to respond to the study's results and the new ranking that shows that musculoskeletal conditions have an enormous and growing impact in all regions of the world.

According to BJD's call to action, GBD 2010 shows that musculoskeletal conditions are the second greatest cause of disability globally. Back pain causes the most disability across the globe, with osteoarthritis showing the greatest increase in the last 20 years.

GBD 2010 is the largest ever systematic effort to describe the global distribution and causes of a wide array of major diseases, injuries, and health risk factors. The results show that infectious diseases, maternal and child illness, and malnutrition now cause fewer deaths and less illness than they did 20 years ago. As a result, fewer children are dying every year, but more young and middle-aged adults are dying and suffering from disease and injury, as noncommunicable diseases become the dominant causes of death and disability worldwide. Since 1970, men and women worldwide have gained slightly more than 10 years of life expectancy overall, but they spend more years living with injury and illness.

GBD 2010 includes 7 articles, each containing data on different aspects of the study (including data for different countries and world regions, men and women, and different age groups). Accompanying comments include reactions to the study's publication from World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim. The study is described by Lancet Editor-in-Chief Richard Horton, BSc MB FRCP FMedSci, as "a critical contribution to our understanding of present and future health priorities for countries and the global community."

APTA is a founding member of the United States Bone and Joint Initiative, which is part of the international BJD.