Background

Chronic pain is a major and complex health condition associated with reduced work performance. A multimodal rehabilitation programme (MMRP) is a common intervention for chronic pain conditions, the goal being for the person to maintain or return to work.

Aim

To investigate the multivariate relationships between health-related quality of life, life interference, pain, physiological factors before MMRP and full-time sick leave 1 year after MMRP.

Material and Methods

Data were collected from the Swedish Quality Registry for Pain Rehabilitation. The study included 284 participants. Separate analyses were performed for women, men and three age groups.

Results

There were correlations between sick leave, physical functioning, pain duration, health-related quality of life, and self-assessed importance of work before MMRP and sick leave 1 year after MMRP. The patterns of factors associated with full-time sick leave varied for women, men and age groups.

Conclusions

These findings indicate that full-time sick leave for patients with chronic pain is affected by a number of interacting factors. Occupational therapy interventions aiming to develop activity skills in relation to work roles and enable patients to develop skills required to manage the physical, psychological and social demands to return to work or maintain work could be valuable to increase the possibility of attaining a sustainable work situation.