Abstract
This study investigates to what extent pain in multiple sites and common risk factors related to work environment, occupational class and health behaviours are associated with cause-specific work disability (WD) development clusters. The study population was derived from the Finnish Helsinki Health Study (n = 2878). Sequence analysis created clusters of similar subsequent cause-specific WD development in an eight-year follow-up period. Cross-tabulations and multinomial logistic regression were used to analyze the extent to which baseline factors, including pain in multiple sites, were associated with the subsequent WD clusters. A solution with five distinct WD clusters was chosen: absence of any WD (40%), low and temporary WD due to various causes (46%), WD due to mental disorders (3%), WD due to musculoskeletal (8%) and WD due to other causes (4%). Half of the employees in the musculoskeletal WD cluster had pain in multiple locations. In the adjusted model the number of pain sites, low occupational class and physical working conditions were linked to the musculoskeletal WD. The identified characteristics of the different WD clusters may help target tailored work disability prevention measures for those at risk.
Highlights
IntroductionPain emerges as one of the most important early predictors of a long-term work disability due to musculoskeletal disorders and other causes [1,2,3]
Pain emerges as one of the most important early predictors of a long-term work disability due to musculoskeletal disorders and other causes [1,2,3]. This calls for more detailed investigations on when and what causes pain that leads to work disability
This study focused on the extent to which baseline pain in multiple sites and other characteristics predicted the clusters of work disability development during an eight-year follow-up period among midlife employees
Summary
Pain emerges as one of the most important early predictors of a long-term work disability due to musculoskeletal disorders and other causes [1,2,3]. This calls for more detailed investigations on when and what causes pain that leads to work disability. The reduction of work disability (sickness absence (SA) and disability pension (DP)) is a widely acknowledged policy goal in Finland, one of the countries in which the number of working aged people is decreasing [4]. Thorough understanding of the predictors of work disability is vital for this policy goal
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