Relations of employment status to emotional distress among chronic pain patients: A path analysis

Objective: This cross-sectional study evaluated the extent to which relations between employment status and emotional distress are mediated by pain-related and psychosocial measures among employed and unemployed persons with chronic pain. Design: A total of 40 unemployed and 43 employed persons reporting chronic pain were recruited from pain services at a tertiary-care hospital and community-based organizations. Volunteers completed self-report measures of pain severity, subjective financial stress, time structure, emotional distress, and background data. Results: A path analysis indicated that pain severity had direct associations with both emotional distress and employment status. In addition, employment status was only indirectly related to emotional distress; this relation was mediated by levels of reported financial strain and structured purposeful time use. Conclusions: Findings suggest that pain severity and the quality of specific experiences related to being employed or unemployed as opposed to employment status per se correspond directly to levels of emotional distress reported by some persons with chronic pain.