Chronic pain, work performance and litigation
Abstract
The overall population impact of chronic pain on work performance has been underestimated as it has often been described in terms of work-related absence, excluding more subtle effects that chronic pain may have on the ability to work effectively. Additionally, most studies have focussed on occupational and/or patient cohorts and treatment seeking, rather than sampling from the general population. We undertook a population-based random digit dialling computer-assisted telephone survey with participants randomly selected within households in order to measure the impact of chronic pain on work performance. In addition, we measured the association between pain-related disability and litigation. The study took place in Northern Sydney Health Area, a geographically defined urban area of New South Wales, Australia, and included 484 adults aged 18 or over with chronic pain. The response rate was 73.4%. Working with pain was more common (on an average 83.8 days in 6 months) than lost work days due to pain (4.5 days) among chronic pain participants in full-time or part-time employment. When both lost work days and reduced-effectiveness work days were summed, an average of 16.4 lost work day equivalents occurred in a 6-month period, approximately three times the average number of lost work days. In multiple logistic regression modelling with pain-related disability as the dependent variable, past or present pain-related litigation had the strongest association (odds ratio (OR)=3.59, P=0.001). In conclusion, chronic pain had a larger impact on work performance than has previously been recognised, related to reduced performance while working with pain. A significant proportion were able to work effectively with pain, suggesting that complete relief of pain may not be an essential therapeutic target. Litigation (principally work-related) for chronic pain was strongly associated with higher levels of pain-related disability, even after taking into account other factors associated with poor functional outcomes.
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The majority (60-70%) of workers with CMP stays at work despite pain and without sick leave.
“However, the majority (60-70%) of workers with CMP stays at work despite pain and without sick leave [3-6].”
From Staying at work with chronic nonspecific musculoskeletal pain: a qualitative study of workers' experiences (2011) · cites this paper as [4]
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“Despite the high revalence of musculoskeletal pain in the workforce, many people ith pain continue to work [3,4].”
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“Neuropathic pain has a strong negative impact on everyday life activities and working performance and immensely reduces patients’ health related quality of life (Blyth et al., 2003).”
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BackgroundThe relationship between anger and pain
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“Chronic pain is a commonexperience,with a prevalence of between 10% and 20% in the general adult population.(6,7,34,95,114) Often, chronic pain is disabling and notoriously difficult to treat.”
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“…or who were receiving workers compensation (vs. no workers compensation) because of their neck problems (hypotheses 7a, 7b, 8a and 8b) (Jenkinson et al., 1993; Rainville et al., 1997; Riddle and Stratford, 1998; Teasell, 2001; Hee et al., 2002; Blyth et al., 2003; McCarthy et al., 2007).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialExpectation influences the interruptive function of pain: Behavioural and neural findings
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Low Back Pain and Everyday Functioning of Students
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- Authors
- Blyth, F. M., March, L. M., Nicholas, M. K., & Cousins, M. J.
- Affiliations
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Blyth, Fiona M
- Venue
- Pain
- Published
- 2003-05
- Volume
- 103
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 41-47
- ISSN
- 0304-3959 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2017538611
- Cited by
- 191
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 11
- FWCI
- 5.14
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Pain (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Workplace Health and Well-being
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation › Medical Practices and Rehabilitation
- Keywords
- chronic pain, employee performance, pain-related disability, litigation, absenteeism, population survey, employment, functional outcome
- MeSH terms
- Australia, Chronic Disease, Disability Evaluation, Female, Health Surveys, Humans, Jurisprudence, Male, Middle Aged, Pain, Pain Measurement, Sex Factors, Work, Work Capacity Evaluation, Workers' Compensation, Prevalence, Age Distribution
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