Presented at the 2012 AAPM Annual Meeting « Back

Effect of Pain on Work, Daily Life Tasks, and Activities Among Patients Seeking Treatment for Chronic Pain

Patrick A. Thompson, BA, patrick.thompson@hc.msu.edu¹, Fred N. Davis, MD², Philip L. Reed, PhD¹, Jana M. Mossey, PhD MPH MSN³, Mark L. Gostine, MD², Rebecca Risko, BSN RN², (1) Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, (2) ProCare Research, Grand Rapids, Michigan, (3) Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Introduction/Statement of the Problem: Chronic pain often interferes with an individual's work or other daily activities. From a clinical perspective, assessment of pain related loss in work, social, and personal activities and clarification of sociodemographic, medical comorbidities, and behaviors are essential in the development of comprehensive pain management strategies. Materials and Methods: 13,289 patients seeking treatment for chronic pain conditions from a large Midwest pain management practice were enrolled between January 2007 and December 2010. Participants consented using an IRB-approved informed consent protocol. Prior to seeing their physician, participants were asked to identify the amount of time during the past 4 weeks that pain caused them: to cut down on daily activities, to restrict the types of activities they perform; to experience difficulty accomplishing activity goals, and to limit their overall performance. Response options for these items ranged from '0' (none/not at all) to '10' (always/extremely). Comparison groups were created consisting of participants reporting no interference (0) and moderate to extreme interference (6+). Multiple logistic regression (MLR) was used to model the impact of pain on daily activities as a function of pain locations, comorbidities, behaviors (e.g., smoking, drinking), and sociodemographic variables. Results: The multivariate model showed depression (OR=1.63, CI = [1.49,1.78], p<.001) and smoking (OR = 1.38, CI[1.35,1.45]), p<.001) more likely to be associated with patient reported activity limitation due to pain. Results were similar across all four activity limitation items. Additional results will be discussed. Conclusions: Health behaviors and mental health comorbidities are associated with reported pain-related activities in daily life.

Funding: None