Staying at work with chronic nonspecific musculoskeletal pain: a qualitative study of workers' experiences

A semi-structured interview was conducted among 21 subjects who stay at work despite CMP. Participants were included through purposeful sampling. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and imported into computer software Atlas.ti. Data was analyzed by means of thematic analysis. The interviews consisted of open questions such as: "Why are you working with pain?" or "How do you manage working while having pain?"A total of 16 motivators and 52 success factors emerged in the interviews. Motivators were categorized into four themes: work as value, work as therapy, work as income generator, and work as responsibility. Success factors were categorized into five themes: personal characteristics, adjustment latitude, coping with pain, use of healthcare services, and pain beliefs.Personal characteristics, well-developed self-management skills, and motivation to work may be considered to be important success factors and prerequisites for staying at work, resulting in behaviors promoting staying at work such as: raising adjustment latitude, changing pain-coping strategies, organizing modifications and conditions at work, finding access to healthcare services, and asking for support. Motivators and success factors for staying at work may be used for interventions in rehabilitation and occupational medicine, to prevent absenteeism, or to promote a sustainable return to work. This qualitative study has evoked new hypotheses about staying at work; quantitative studies on staying at work are needed to obtain further evidence.Chronic nonspecific musculoskeletal pain (CMP) is a prominent public-health problem in most welfare states. The influence of CMP on the degree of employee absenteeism and disability allowances is high [1-3]. However, the majority (60-70%) of workers with CMP stays at work despite pain and without sick leave [3-6]. This is not unique for CMP, for in cases of chronic disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes mellitus, or COPD and asthma, mos