Chronic back problems and labor force participation in a national population survey: impact of comorbid arthritis

Lauren Churcher,Elizabeth M Badley,Christina H Chan

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-13-326

Abstract

BackgroundBack problems and arthritis are common chronic conditions, while having back problems is a frequent reason for lost work time. The objective of this study was to investigate employment status amongst individuals who report having both back problems and arthritis, compared to having either condition alone.MethodsWe analyzed data from the 2007/2008 Canadian Community Health Survey (ages 25–64, n = 79,719). Respondents who reported neither having worked in the past 12 months nor the past week were coded as not currently employed. Those reported being permanently unable to work were considered to be out of the labor force. Log-Poisson regressions, adjusting for socio-demographic and lifestyle factors, were used to estimate risks for being not currently employed or being out of the labor force for 5 mutually exclusive groups of chronic conditions: arthritis and back problems, back problems, arthritis, any other chronic conditions, and no chronic conditions.Results12.7% of respondents reported being not currently employed and 2.9% being out of the labor force. 5.8% of respondents reported both arthritis and back problems, while 16.1% reported back problems and 7.3% arthritis. The back problems and arthritis group had the highest risk of not being currently employed. The risk was higher for men (PR = 1.90; 95% CI = 1.58, 2.29) than for women (PR = 1.31; 95% CI = 1.18, 1.46). Risks of being permanently unable to work were also the greatest for those with comorbid back problems and arthritis.ConclusionsThere is a need for a reappraisal of back problems as a cause of work disability to account for the possibility of co-occurring arthritis.

Highlights

Back problems and arthritis are common chronic conditions, while having back problems is a frequent reason for lost work time
Study design and setting Data used in this study were obtained from Cycle 4.1 (2007/2008) of the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), which is a cross-sectional survey administered by Statistics Canada to collect information on health status, health care utilization, and health determinants of Canadians aged 12 years and older
The risk for the back problems and arthritis group was significantly higher for men than women

Summary

Introduction

Back problems and arthritis are common chronic conditions, while having back problems is a frequent reason for lost work time. Having back problems is recognized as one of the most frequent reasons for lost greater risk for work loss, work disability and early retirement [2,3,15,16,17]. The burden of back problems on work-time loss and work productivity is well documented, there is a limited body of evidence describing the impact of comorbidities on employment outcomes for individuals with back problems. Several studies have shown that co-occurring chronic physical and mental conditions increases the risk of work loss and work cutback days compared to having a physical or mental condition alone [18,19,20,21]. The impact of having co-occurring back problems and arthritis has been little studied

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