Worker Recovery Expectations and Fear-Avoidance Predict Work Disability in a Population-Based Workers’ Compensation Back Pain Sample

Details

• Personal Author:
  Egan K ; Franklin G ; Fulton-Kehoe D ; Gluck JV ; Sheppard L ; Turner JA ; Wickizer TM ; Wu R
• Description:
  Prospective, population-based cohort study. To examine whether worker demographic, pain, disability, and psychosocial variables, assessed soon after work-related back pain disability onset, predict 6-month work disability. Greater age, pain, and physical disability, and certain psychosocial characteristics may be risk factors for prolonged back pain-related work disability, although many studies have been small, findings have been inconsistent, and some psychosocial variables have not been examined prospectively. Workers (N = 1,068) completed telephone interviews assessing demographic, pain, disability, and psychosocial variables 18 days (median) after submitting Workers' Compensation back pain disability claims. Administrative measures of work disability 6 months after claim submission were obtained. At 6 months, 196 workers (18.4%) were receiving work disability compensation. Age, race, education, and baseline pain and disability were significant predictors of 6-month disability. Adjusting for baseline demographics, pain, disability, and other psychosocial variables, high work fear-avoidance (odds ratio, 4.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.6-13.7) and very low recovery expectations (odds ratio, 3.1, 95% confidence interval, 1.5-6.5) were significant independent predictors. Among individuals with acute work-related back pain, high pain and disability, low recovery expectations, and fears that work may increase pain or cause harm are risk factors for chronic work disability. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Age Factors Demography Musculoskeletal Diseases Occupational Health Race Factors Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Sex Characteristics
• Keywords:
  Age-factors Back-injuries Demographic-characteristics Disabled-workers Injuries Racial-factors Risk-analysis Risk-factors Sex-factors Traumatic-injuries Worker-health Workers

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• ISSN:
  0362-2436
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 10 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  31
• Issue:
  6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20029771
• Citation:
  Spine 2006 Mar; 31(6):682-689
• Email:
  jturner@u.washington.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• Performing Organization:
  University of Washington
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20010930
• Source Full Name:
  Spine
• End Date:
  20070929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:3f903281917bb2a55dd821e9430fa704e6a42856ad79b74ef586d08bfa94a2b48cdcec722134ec757abd6ea47d9df6ed60a5ec79385ddc575835fc123dd0fe74
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/190684/cdc_190684_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 567.99 KB ]