QUantifying the Impact of Chronic pain on engagement in paid work (QUICK)

Developing a new questionnaire to capture the full range of work impacts for those with chronic pain

Chronic pain is pain that persists over months or years and fails to respond to usual pain care. It has many causes but it is often musculoskeletal in nature (for example, back pain). Chronic pain affects the kind of work people do and how they engage in it, in a range of different ways - from impacting how much work one can do on a day-to-day basis, to long-term career choices. There is currently no standard questionnaire that can fully explore or measure the impact of chronic pain on people’s ability to work. Existing questionnaires assume people have one job and are contracted to work a certain number of hours every week. They do not ask about the different ways pain might affect work and they are not designed for modern ways of working, such as holding several part-time jobs or having "zero hours" contracts.

Aims

We aim to develop a questionnaire that can be used to assess the many different ways in which chronic pain affects work ability, taking into account modern ways of working. By doing this we aim to create a standardised instrument that can be used in future studies to assess and compare the impacts of chronic pain on working life in a variety of contexts.

What will this research involve?

In order to develop the questionnaire, we will carry out three distinct pieces of research work (called workpackages), with a DELPHI process being conducted in between workpackages two and three

Workpackage 1

We will first conduct a review of the scientific literature to identify any existing questionnaires which ask about impacts of chronic pain on work.

Workpackage 2

The second phase of the study will involve focus groups with various stakeholders to further explore the ways in which chronic pain impacts individuals’ ability to engage with work. Using  this information, in combination with the output of Workpackage 1, we will develop a draft of a new questionnaire, using relevant items from existing questionnaires, adapting them if necessary, and/or by creating new ones as needed

Delphi study

We will further refine the wording/content of the questions during rounds of feedback from patient partners, a range of employers, representatives of all the different relevant expert groups and policy-makers to make sure it is easy to understand and covers all the relevant areas.

Workpackage 3

Finally, we will assess the validity and usability of the new instrument by asking people with chronic pain to complete the new questionnaire. We will also seek perspectives on how easy it was to understand the questions, whether they thought that important work-issues were missed out, and for any other feedback. We will also collect face-to-face feedback from some participants. We will then hold a final workshop with key stakeholders  to finalise the questionnaire.

What has the study found so far?

We have now completed Workpackage 1, Workpackage 2, and the Delphi study, and have a completed draft questionnaire which is currently undergoing testing and evaluation in Workpackage 3.

If you are interested in finding out more, you can watch the following short video in which Dr Martin Stevens discusses the work we have done so far, reveals some of the study's key findings, and provides more detail about how our draft questionnaire has been developed: 

Publications

You can read the paper from the narrative review phase of the study (Workpackage 1) here:

We have also produced the following poster which details the study progress to date. This poster was presented at the International Congress on Occupational Health (ICOH) 2024 in Marrakesh, Morocco on 30th April 2024:

Study team

Chief Investigator
Professor Gary Macfarlane (University of Aberdeen)


Co-investigators
Dr Rosemary Hollick (University of Aberdeen)
Dr Elaine Wainwright (University of Aberdeen)
Professor Paul McNamee (University of Aberdeen)
Dr Suzanne Verstappen (University of Manchester)
Dr Nicola Goodson (University of Liverpool)
Professor Nicola Fear (King’s College London)
Professor Ira Madan (Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust / King’s College London)


Associated research staff
Dr LaKrista Morton (University of Aberdeen)
Dr Martin Stevens (University of Aberdeen)
Dr Anne Stagg (Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust / King’s College London)
Mr Stuart Anderson (University of Aberdeen)

Centre institutions

Further information

If you want further information you can visit the QUICK study page at the University of Aberdeen.

you have any queries for the study team, you can contact us at quick@abdn.ac.uk