Chronic Pain Up Among U.S. Workers

Massage therapists who provide on-site massage to businesses have an unfortunate marketing hook: Employees are in pain.

Persistent, chronic pain has risen dramatically among full-time U.S. workers in the past 10 years, according to a recent study. Most workers in pain still go to work rather than call in sick, leading to a growing trend of "presenteeism"—a negative impact on work despite being physically present at the job.

The "“Pain in the Workplace” study was conducted at the end of 2006 by Harris Interactive. It was sponsored by by PriCara,  a unit of Ortho-McNeil pharmaceutical company, and conducted in partnership with the National Pain Foundation (NPF).

“Chronic pain appears to be increasing in prevalence among U.S. workers as Americans age and lead more sedentary lifestyles,” said Rollin Gallagher, M.D., editor-in-chief of the NPF Web site and director of the Center for Pain Medicine, Research and Policy of the University of Pennsylvania, in a Harris Interactive press release.

Chronic pain, defined in the survey as pain that lasts for at least six months, was more common in the workplace in 2006 than it was in 1996 (26 percent vs. 19 percent). Among the results:

• Today, almost 9 in 10 employees with chronic pain (89 percent typically go to work rather than stay home when experiencing chronic pain, the survey found.

• 89 percent of employees reported experiencing chronic pain at work “often” or “sometimes.”

• 95 percent of employees with persistent, chronic pain reported that their pain must be moderately severe or very severe to cause them to stay home from work.

There have been positive changes in the workplace in the last decade. More than 66 percent of employers surveyed now offer worksite wellness programs to employees, compared to 40 percent in 1996. But while the number of wellness programs is relatively high, the number of programs addressing chronic pain is not. Only 22 percent of wellness programs include a component about preventing or living with chronic-pain conditions.