Louis Jacob1,2,3, Guillermo F López-Sánchez4, Hans Oh5, Igor Grabovac6, Sinisa Stefanac7, Jae Il Shin8, Mark A Tully9, Rubén López-Bueno10, Ai Koyanagi1,2,11, Yvonne Barnett12, Josep Maria Haro1,2, Lee Smith13. 1. Research and Development Unit, Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu, Dr. Antoni Pujadas, 42, 08830, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain. 2. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Madrid, Spain. 3. Faculty of Medicine, University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, 78180, Montigny-le-Bretonneux, France. 4. Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care, School of Medicine, Vision and Eye Research Institute, Anglia Ruskin University-Cambridge Campus, Cambridge, UK. guillermo.lopez-sanchez@aru.ac.uk. 5. Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90015, USA. 6. Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Centre for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. 7. Centre for Medical Statistics, Informatics and Intelligent Systems, Institute for Outcomes Research, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. 8. Department of Pediatrics, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. 9. School of Health Sciences, Institute of Mental Health Sciences, Ulster University, Newtownabbey, Antrim, UK. 10. Department of Physical Medicine and Nursing, University of Zaragoza, 50009, Zaragoza, Spain. 11. ICREA, Pg. Lluis Companys 23, 08010, Barcelona, Spain. 12. Faculty of Science and Engineering, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, CB1 1PT, UK. 13. The Cambridge Centre for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK.
Abstract
PURPOSE: There is a paucity of literature identifying factors that influence the back and neck pain (BNP)-workplace absenteeism relationship. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the association between BNP and workplace absenteeism and potential mediating variables in a large sample of the US population. METHODS: Nationally representative data collected in 2019 from the RAND American Life Panel (ALP) were used for this retrospective study. Workplace absenteeism was defined as the number of days of absence in the past 12 months for health-related reasons (count variable), while BNP corresponded to the presence of back pain due to spinal stenosis, back pain due to other causes, or neck pain (dichotomous variable). Control variables included sex, age, ethnicity, marital status, education, occupation, annual family income, health insurance, obesity, and diabetes. There were eight influential variables (depression, anxiety, sleep disorder, alcohol dependence, opioid dependence, walking difficulty, standing difficulty, and sitting difficulty). The association between BNP and workplace absenteeism was analyzed using a negative binomial regression model. RESULTS: There were 1,471 adults aged 22-83 years included in this study (52.9% of men; mean [standard deviation] age 44.5 [13.0] years). After adjusting for control variables, BNP was positively and significantly associated with workplace absenteeism (incidence rate ratio = 1.40, 95% confidence interval: 1.07-1.83). Walking, standing, and sitting difficulties individually explained between 24 and 43% of this association. CONCLUSIONS: Workplace interventions focusing on the management of BNP and overcoming difficulties in walking, standing, and sitting, potentially utilizing exercise, therapy, and ergonomic interventions, may prevent absenteeism.
PURPOSE: There is a paucity of literature identifying factors that influence the back and neck pain (BNP)-workplace absenteeism relationship. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the association between BNP and workplace absenteeism and potential mediating variables in a large sample of the US population. METHODS: Nationally representative data collected in 2019 from the RAND American Life Panel (ALP) were used for this retrospective study. Workplace absenteeism was defined as the number of days of absence in the past 12 months for health-related reasons (count variable), while BNP corresponded to the presence of back pain due to spinal stenosis, back pain due to other causes, or neck pain (dichotomous variable). Control variables included sex, age, ethnicity, marital status, education, occupation, annual family income, health insurance, obesity, and diabetes. There were eight influential variables (depression, anxiety, sleep disorder, alcohol dependence, opioid dependence, walking difficulty, standing difficulty, and sitting difficulty). The association between BNP and workplace absenteeism was analyzed using a negative binomial regression model. RESULTS: There were 1,471 adults aged 22-83 years included in this study (52.9% of men; mean [standard deviation] age 44.5 [13.0] years). After adjusting for control variables, BNP was positively and significantly associated with workplace absenteeism (incidence rate ratio = 1.40, 95% confidence interval: 1.07-1.83). Walking, standing, and sitting difficulties individually explained between 24 and 43% of this association. CONCLUSIONS: Workplace interventions focusing on the management of BNP and overcoming difficulties in walking, standing, and sitting, potentially utilizing exercise, therapy, and ergonomic interventions, may prevent absenteeism.
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