Working through the pain: a controlled study of the impact of persistent pain on performing a computer task.

OBJECTIVES: A large percentage of employees experience persistent pain while at work. This situation can become costly to employers with large amounts of lost production-time, absenteeism, and long-term disability. The link or transition between working through (ignoring) pain and disabling pain is unknown. This paper presents the results of a controlled study examining the impact of persistent pain on performance in a working population. Benefits of early detection are discussed.

METHODS: This was a controlled, repeated measures study using 3 types of measures: questionnaires (pain, pain anxiety, daily memory, and attention mistakes); actigraphic monitoring to assure the absence of sleep deprivation; and the Performance Assessment Battery, a computer-based series of tests. Participants were studied during 3 time periods (9:00 AM, 3:00 PM, and 9:00 PM).

RESULTS: Forty participants (20 pain, 20 controls) were studied. For all tasks, pain participants were slower than controls with significant findings on 2 tasks and less accurate with significant differences on 1 task.

DISCUSSION: Unlike other studies that either induced pain or used persons with complex pain conditions, this study used participants with a low level of pain intensity and had a majority still engaged in full-time employment. Our results found that people with persistent low-level pain demonstrate a reduction in performance compared with controls. Our study revealed that using a sensitive tool to detect minor performance deficits could indicate pain interference. The early detection of pain interference would provide an opportunity for prevention programs to have a pre-emptive effect on work-related musculoskeletal disorders.