Decreased Chronic Widespread Pain on Nonworking Days Might Help Differentiate Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders From Fibromyalgia: A Cross-Sectional Study of Working Females

Abstract

Objectives This study aims to investigate whether fibromyalgia (FM) and work-related musculoskeletal disorders can be differentiated in working females by comparing their pain on nonworking and working days. Patients and methods The study included 142 female workers (mean age 30.0±6.5 years; range, 18 to 50 years) from five different work areas: 27 factory workers, 27 janitors, 25 data automation employees, 31 nurses, and 32 physiotherapists. Demographic characteristics were recorded. FM was diagnosed according to 2016 criteria of the American College of Rheumatology. The extended version of the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire was used to evaluate the participants’ musculoskeletal complaints and the severity of their pain. Pain was assessed with visual analog scale (VAS) scores on working and nonworking days. Differences in the participants’ VAS-Pain on working and nonworking days were compared. Sensitivity, specificity, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under the curve (AUC) were used. Results Of the 142 working females, 32 (22.5%) were diagnosed with FM. There was a significant difference in nonworking day VAS-Pain scores between the FM patients and the work-related musculoskeletal disorder patients (p<0.001). Analysis of ROC curve for VAS-Pain difference scores yielded AUC of 0.860 (95% confidence interval=0.774–0.945) (p<0.001). ROC analysis identified 1.5 centimeters of VAS-Pain difference score as the cut-point for differentiating work-related musculoskeletal disorders and FM resulting in sensitivity of 97% and specificity of 96%. FM patients had significantly higher rates of positive answers to “visit health professionals,” “take medication,” and “sick leave” questions compared to patients with work-related musculoskeletal disorders (p<0.001). Conclusion The amount of the decrease in pain on nonworking days may help differentiate work-related musculoskeletal disorders from FM in working females. Therefore, evaluating pain on nonworking days may help clinicians diagnose and treat FM correctly.

Factores biopsicosociales y calidad de vida en fibromialgia desde la terapia ocupacional. Un estudio cualitativo.

“…La evidencia afirma que las personas con Fibromialgia que mantienen su empleo tienen, por lo general, un mejor estado de salud que las que están desempleadas. Esta controversia puede deberse a las condiciones de dichos trabajos, ya que si el puesto se adapta al estado de salud de la persona enferma es posible que, a la larga, la satisfacción personal al mantener esta ocupación repercuta positivamente en lo síntomas psicológicos (Güler & Çakit, 2020;Duhn et al, 2021). En el presente estudio se reveló que muchas de las entrevistadas manifestaban tristeza o sensación de pérdida tras haber abandonado su trabajo, ya que este es una parte importante del rol como ciudadano y que, en muchos casos, define parte de la identidad ocupacional.…”

Translation, cultural adaptation and assessment of psychometrics properties of the Extended Version of the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ-E) in Persian language speaking people

“…Because of the limitation of the previous instruments to gather greater data regarding the prevalence of musculoskeletal pain in various regions of the body, the need for new reliable and valid instruments with the ability to simultaneously generate data from multi-body regions is evident. In contrast, WMSDs should be differentiated and screened appropriately from other disorders caused by diseases such as fibromyalgia or arthritis [ 10 ] or by falls, slips, trips, or similar incidents [ 11 ].…”