Back pain occurrence and treatment-seeking behavior among nurses: the role of work-related emotional burden

Abstract

To assess the association of back pain and treatment-seeking behavior for such pain with work-related emotional burden (regret about care), regret coping strategies and physical burden among newly practicing nurses. Methods:We used data from the Impact of Care-related Regret Upon Sleep (ICARUS) cohort collected between 05.2017 and 07.2018 using web-based surveys (weekly for measures of emotional burden, physical burden and coping strategies, and monthly for back pain and seeking care). We investigated immediate associations and temporal influences between burdens and back pain with linear mixed models and cross-lagged Bayesian models, respectively. Coefficients were standardized to allow comparison between burdens. Logistic regression was used to examine the association of burdens with seeking care.Results: Among 105 nurses with an average follow-up of 3 months, 80 reported at least one episode of back pain. Neither physical nor emotional burdens had an immediate association with back pain. However, number of days with back pain in a given month was associated with an increase in both burdens during the previous month, with similar degrees of association (emotional: b=0.24, physical: b=0.21). Decision to seek treatment was associated with an increase in back pain frequency (OR=1.12, p=0.04) and intensity (OR=1.80, p=0.002), and a decrease in emotional burden (OR=0.95, p=0.03). Coping strategies were associated neither with the occurrence of back pain nor with care-seeking. Conclusion:While both emotional and physical burdens were associated with increased frequency of back pain the following month, emotional burden additionally showed a negative association with the decision to seek care.

Regret and Therapeutic Decisions in Multiple Sclerosis Care: Literature Review and Research Protocol

“…The initial search using the aforementioned mesh terms yielded 652 articles. After the removal of duplicate publications and those not meeting our inclusion criteria, 14 articles remained for the analysis (Table 2) (8,9,11,12,33,(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44). All articles included were published in English.…”

“…Among quantitative studies, 6 out of 14 studies assessed the intensity of regret by a single question using a Likert scale ( 11 , 12 , 36 , 38 , 43 , 44 ). We also observed a high heterogeneity among the measurements and magnitude of regret across studies (ranging from 1.70 to 8.75 in the RIS-10 or Decision Regret Scales).…”

“…The consequences of regret in medicine include negative health outcomes among healthcare professionals, such as a high number of days with back pain and sleep problems, poor healthrelated quality of life, high sick leave days, and low job satisfaction with high turnover (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12).…”

Poor Health Conditions among Brazilian Healthcare Workers: The Study Design and Baseline Characteristics of the HEROES Cohort

“…Depressive symptoms are more prevalent among women, who also constitute the majority of healthcare workers [ 5 , 6 , 7 ]. Factors associated with depression include back symptoms [ 8 ], BMI ≥ 25 kg/m 2 [ 9 ], poor sleep or insomnia [ 7 , 10 ], high work demand and low control [ 11 ], excessive workload (>60 h) [ 12 , 13 ], job insecurity [ 12 ], stress [ 11 ], low income [ 14 ], shift work [ 13 ], burnout [ 14 , 15 ], low social support [ 16 ], physical violence [ 13 ], and a lack of physical activity [ 13 ]. Healthcare workers may be exposed to all these factors in addition to the emotional burden derived from the suffering and pain of patients and family members [ 14 ].…”