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Abstract
Objectives To determine the prevalence and the factors related to sick leave and job loss among individuals suffering from chronic pain (CP), and to analyse specifically the effect of family and social support on the individual's employment.
Design Observational cross-sectional study.
Setting Data were collected using structured computer-assisted telephone interviews between February and June 2011.
Participants A nationwide study of 1543 Spanish adults of working age (<65), 213 of whom suffered from CP (pain suffered at least 4 or 5 days a week during the past 3 months, according to the criteria of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)).
Main outcome measure Information was collected regarding the individual's sociodemographic status, pain characteristics, healthcare use and satisfaction, limitations in daily activities, mood status, perception of the impact of pain on their families, and their satisfaction with the family and social support. To identify factors associated with sick leave and job loss among those suffering CP, 2 logistic regression models were generated.
Results The prevalence of sick leave due to CP in the general Spanish population was 4.21% (95% CI 3.2% to 5.2%). Sick leave were more likely for individuals who considered their family were affected by their pain (OR=2.18), needed help to dressing and grooming (OR=2.98), taking medication (OR=2.18), had a shorter pain duration (OR=0.99) and higher educational level. The prevalence of job loss due to CP was 1.8% (95% CI 1.1% to 2.5%). It was related to feelings of sadness (OR=4.25), being unsatisfied with the care provided by health professionals (OR=2.60) and consulting a doctor more often due to CP (OR=1.09).
Conclusions CP is negatively associated with an individual's employment. This detrimental effect could be ameliorated if the factors related to sick leave and job loss provoked by CP are identified, especially those related to the effect of CP on the family and social environment.
- Chronic Pain
- Sick leave
- Job loss
- Family impact
This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
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Footnotes
Contributors IF conceived the idea of the article. The fieldwork was performed by BO, AS and MD. MD and HdS performed the statistical analysis. HdS was mainly responsible for writing the manuscript. IF and AS were involved in revising the content. All the authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
Funding This work was supported by the External Chair of Pain, a collaboration between the University of Cádiz and the Grünenthal Foundation. The Grünenthal Foundation is a private non-profitable organisation that promotes the dissemination of scientific knowledge and supports research.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement No additional data are available.