title: Work productivity impairment from musculoskeletal disorder pain in long-term caregivers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the impact of Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD) pain on work productivity in Long-Term Caregivers.
  
  
  METHODS
  An eight item work productivity impairment scale specific to MSD pain was constructed, evaluated and used as part of a telephone survey of LTCaregivers health.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The productivity impairment scale demonstrated good reliability and validity. The fifty-six of 71 caregivers (79%) reporting work-related MSD pain endorsed, on average > three of eight items in the impairment scale. Only two variables predicted productivity impairment: 1) pain frequency and 2) frequency of resident lifts and transfers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Specifically linking MSD pain from manual resident lifting to impaired work productivity may provide employers with additional visible impact of manual lifting beyond compensation costs alone, and thus promote adoption of safer lifting practices.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Internal Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Patricia W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Gucer
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oliver
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Parrish
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McDiarmid
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017028:Caregivers; D004526:Efficiency / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010146:Pain