Presenteeism and Pain: Psychosocial and Demographic Correlates of Employment and Disability

Recent, national attention has focused (understandably) on such issues as opioid abuse and risk evaluation and mitigation strategies. The article in this issue by Karoly, Ruehlman, and Okun [1], however, serves as a reminder that pain-related disability is an enduring societal challenge that should demand similar levels of attention. As testimony to the enduring nature of the challenge, the Institute of Medicine has issued several reports that address the topic [2,3], with the latter report estimating the annual costs of lost productivity related to pain at approximately $300 billion. Rather than abating, these data suggest that the problem of pain-related disability represents an increasing societal challenge.The Karoly et al. article describes both demographic and psychosocial factors associated with differences in employment status (employed vs disabled) in persons with chronic pain. For the most part, the demographic characteristics that …