Improving Work Outcomes in Patients with Musculoskeletal Pain – Effectiveness and Costs of a Vocational Advice Service

Tuesday, July 30, 2019 at 8:30 AM PT, 11:30 AM ET, 4:30 PM BT

Resources:

Presentation Slides

The pain and disability caused by musculoskeletal conditions result in substantial loss of quality of life, accounting for 21% of the total years lived with disability worldwide. This has considerable impact on healthcare systems, in the UK 1 in 5 people consult their primary care providers each year for a musculoskeletal condition, in Canada and Sweden musculoskeletal conditions account for 20-22% of all healthcare utilisation. The costs of back pain alone range from $259 – 71,614 million, including all musculoskeletal conditions would significantly increase these costs. The most affected groups are those of working age, people with musculoskeletal conditions are less likely to be in work than people without health conditions, and more likely to retire early. Therefore we need to provide appropriate support to those working with musculoskeletal conditions.

You will learn

The impact of musculoskeletal pain on the working age population
The value of working despite musculoskeletal pain
An overview of findings from a randomised controlled trial comparing a brief, early intervention to support people working with pain to best current care

Take home messages

Work is part of life for most of us, and integrating work into healthcare consultations has been shown more broadly to have positive effects for individuals, health and societal systems
Research has demonstrated that adding an early, brief and low intensity vocational advice service for adults with musculoskeletal pain in primary care was associated with significantly fewer days absence over 4 months
Early, primary care orientated initiatives that help people stay in the workforce with their health conditions need to be further developed and tested

Hosted by

Gwenllian Wynne-Jones, Ph.D.

Senior Research Fellow, Keele University, UK

Dr. Gwenllian Wynne-Jones initially trained as a nurse. Her PhD research focused on the epidemiology of pain (specifically examining the role of trauma in the new onset of widespread pain). She joined the Primary Care Centre Versus Arthritis at Keele University in 2005 as a Research Associate and then as the UK’s National Institute for Health Research [NIHR] Research Fellow and NIHR Clinical Trials Fellow. Gwen’s research activities focus on examining the impact of health on work and how this can best be managed. She is particularly interested in the prognosis and management of musculoskeletal pain and other conditions commonly seen in primary care such as mild mental health disorders.