[Temporary working disability among younger patients with back pain and its interaction with severity of pain, functional capacity, social factors and personality styles]

Abstract

The relationships between sick absenteeism and clinical measures were studied for a group of younger patients with chronic back pain (mean years of age for women and men were 41.7 and 42.2, respectively) who were sent to a rehabilitation programme. The duration of sick absenteeism during the last year as well as the momentary status of working ability were correlated with different clinical variables and personality styles. At the beginning of the rehabilitation program, the measure of functional capacity (FFbH-R, Kohlmann u. Raspe, 1996) showed the strongest correlation with temporary working disability (r = -.46) and duration of sick absenteeism during the last year (r = -.44). The severity of pain showed a lower but significant correlation with temporary working disability (r =.24) and duration of sick absenteeism (r =.25). In contrast, depression, vitality and age did not show significant correlations with temporary working disability at the beginning of the rehabilitation. In addition, some of the personality styles from the PSSI (Kuhl u. Kazén, 1997) showed significant correlations with temporary working disability and duration of sick absenteeism. When entering the variables into regression analyses, the measure of functional capacity was the most important predictor of sick absenteeism. Severity of pain, depression, vitality and age did not significantly add to the variance accounted for. In contrast, distinct personality styles from the PSSI significantly contributed to an additional proportion of variance in sick absenteeism and temporary working disability. At the end of the rehabilitation program, there were stable relationships between temporary working disability and functional capacity (r = -.45) as well as severity of pain (r =.39). In, correlations between temporary working disability and depression (r =.30) and vitality (r = -.19) were significant. This was due to the stronger improvement during therapy among patients who were able to work compared to patients who were not.