CHICAGO — Headaches, back pain, arthritis and other muscle and joint pain cost the nation’s employers $61.2 billion a year in lost productivity, a study has found.
Most of those costs are from subpar job performance as a result of the pain rather than absenteeism, according to the study, based on a telephone survey of 28,902 workers in a wide variety of blue-collar and white-collar professions.
The study focuses on some of the most common pain conditions that affect both men and women. It doesn’t include some common conditions such as dental pain and menstrual pain.
Even so, the economic costs are enormous, said Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study appears in today’s JAMA, a theme issue featuring pain-related research.
The pain-cost study suggests that many workers aren’t receiving adequate treatment for treatable "garden variety pain," resulting in unnecessary workplace costs, said epidemiologist Walter Stewart of Geisinger Health Systems in Danville, Pa., the lead author.
Employers also could reduce pain-related costs by investing in things such as properly positioned computer stations or instruction in how to lift heavy objects, said Allen Lebovits, a pain management specialist at New York University Medical Center.
One JAMA study found that treating depression in arthritis patients helped reduce joint pain, and another said better management of pain in children is needed.
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