Pain and pain-related fear are associated with functional and social disability in an occupational setting: Evidence of mediation by pain-related fear

Abstract This study examined the role of work-related, psychosocial and psychological factors in predicting functional and social disability in working employees. In a cross-sectional design, 890 working employees (reporting at least 1 day of back pain during the past year) completed self-report measures of back pain, disability, pain-related fear, negative and positive affectivity, job satisfaction, job stress and physical work load. Regression analyses revealed that pain intensity was a strong predictor of functional ( β  = .69, p β  = .67, p β  = .25, p β  = .28, p