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. 2013 Apr;56(4):488-95.
doi: 10.1002/ajim.22120. Epub 2012 Sep 27.

Association between work-family conflict and musculoskeletal pain among hospital patient care workers

Seung-Sup Kim  1 , Cassandra A Okechukwu, Orfeu M Buxton, Jack T Dennerlein, Leslie I Boden, Dean M Hashimoto, Glorian Sorensen
Affiliations

Association between work-family conflict and musculoskeletal pain among hospital patient care workers

Seung-Sup Kim et al. Am J Ind Med. 2013 Apr.

Abstract

Background: A growing body of evidence suggests that work-family conflict is an important risk factor for workers' health and well-being. The goal of this study is to examine association between work-family conflict and musculoskeletal pain among hospital patient care workers.

Methods: We analyzed a cross-sectional survey of 1,119 hospital patient care workers in 105 units in two urban, academic hospitals. Work-family conflict was measured by 5-item Work-Family Conflict Scale questionnaire. Multilevel logistic regression was applied to examine associations between work-family conflict and self-reported musculoskeletal pain in the past 3 months, adjusting for covariates including work-related psychosocial factors and physical work factors.

Results: In fully adjusted models, high work-family conflict was strongly associated with neck or shoulder pain (OR: 2.34, 95% CI: 1.64-3.34), arm pain (OR: 2.79, 95% CI: 1.64-4.75), lower extremity pain (OR: 2.20, 95% CI: 1.54-3.15) and any musculoskeletal pain (OR: 2.45, 95% CI: 1.56-3.85), and a number of body areas in pain (OR: 2.47, 95% CI: 1.82-3.36) in the past 3 months. The association with low back pain was attenuated and became non-significant after adjusting for covariates.

Conclusions: Given the consistent associations between work-family conflict and self-reported musculoskeletal pains, the results suggest that work-family conflict could be an important domain for health promotion and workplace policy development among hospital patient care workers.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: Dr. Hashimoto is employed by Partners HealthCare System, and the two studied hospitals are Partners hospitals. There are no other possible conflicts of interest to report.

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