Sleep Problems-  A Powerful Predictor of Long Term

Absence From Work Even After 5 Years

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Low Back Pain (LBP) and Neck/Shoulder Pain (NSP) are very common causes of sickness absence

Psychological factors, such as stress, depression and anxiety, have been shown to be associated with pain

Disturbed sleep is common among persons with pain, and is shown to be a factor that predicts sickness absence

Insufficient sleep or relatively short sleep duration is associated with increased self-reported pain intensity and inadequate pain inhibition.

Just one night with disturbed sleep leads to increased experience of pain for a given stimulus the next day

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 DATA FROM NEW RESERACH

Aili K, Nyman T, Hillert L, Svartengren M. Sleep disturbances predict future sickness absence among individuals with lower back or neck-shoulder pain: A 5-year prospective study. Scand J Public Health 2015, Feb 27.

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•  2286 persons in a 5 years prospective study

•  The risk for long term sick absence related to sleep problems after 5 years were significantly higher despite pain problem

•  However, both low back and neck/shoulder pain problems significantly added to the risk

•  The group with the most pronounced sleep problems, were persons with concurrent LBP and NSP. They had a significantly double risk (OR 2.00; CI 1.09-3.67) for sickness absence, also for long-term sickness absence (> 90days) 5 years later, compared to the group with the best sleep

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NO PAIN: 1 out of 154

LBP or NSP: 1 out of 15

LBP+NSP: 1 out of 9

Taking a closer look at the data presented in the paper. It is possible to calculate, out of how many persons one person’s long term (>90 days) sickness absence, after 5 years, is associated with severe sleep problems:

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 Author’s Conclusions

Aili K, Nyman T, Hillert L, Svartengren M. Sleep disturbances predict future sickness absence among individuals with lower back or neck-shoulder pain: A 5-year prospective study. Scand J Public Health 2015, Feb 27.

Conclusions: Sleep disturbances predict sickness absence among individuals regardless of co-existing features of LBP and/or NSP.

The clinical evaluation of patients should take possible sleep disturbances into account in the planning of treatments.

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 Comments

This study highlights the huge need for

awareness of sleep problems in pain

management

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Many assessment tools, like SF-36, does not assess sleep problems

BE PROACTIVE!

There is so much to gain both in terms of healthcare economy, but indeed also on terms of Quality of

Life

Kim Kristiansen, M.D. Twitter: www.twitter.com/DoloTest Facebook: www.facebook.com/DoloTest https://dk.linkedin.com/pub/kim-kristiansen/16/654/565

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