As people adapt to the ‘new normal’ of remote working, questions are rising around the impact of this on workers’ health. Working from home with inadequate facilities and poor body posture could result in a silent but debilitating effect: the increase in chronic and acute pain.
If body pain was already considered a threat to individual well-being before COVID-19, with approximately one third of the adult European population believed to have suffered from pain on a weekly basis, the risk is now that chronic pain will become a rising global issue, as a significant number of people continue to work from home with unsupportive office equipment. This will affect not only people’s quality of life, but the healthcare system, and even the wider economy as a result of compromised working.
As lockdowns start to be relaxed around the world, there’s more room for discussion about the side effects of the so-called ‘new normal’ on people’s physical health. It is only by igniting the conversation about chronic and acute body pain that its impact can be understood, and the issue can be managed effectively.
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Pain costs the global economy USD $245 billion a year – and counting
While nobody misses a dark January, pre-dawn commute, the truth is offices are better equipped with suitable furniture to fight against poor body posture and minimise the risk of injury. According to a recent clinical study, as many as 70% of Brits currently working from home say they are experiencing more aches and pains.
Before the COVID-19 outbreak, research reveals there was a positive and significant correlation between the prevalence of pain and activity limitation. Further research shows more than two in ten individuals feel their own career progression has been negatively impacted by their pain, 46% recognise that pain affects their ability to interact with others, and 60% feel that they could be a better parent without pain. In other words, pain hinders the individual’s ability to properly perform basic social functions that involve body movement such as working, exercising, socialising and parenting.
Lower back pain is also most prevalent for people during middle age, the peak career point for most. This results in a major economic impact for many individuals, families, businesses, and governments. Findings from the GSK Global Pain Index reveal a significant impact of pain on the global economy, amounting to at least USD245 billion lost every year in missed workdays – the equivalent of the GDP of Vietnam or Portugal.
The individual costs and economic costs of pain are significant, and currently there are no long-term solutions in place to alleviate the issue. Temporary fixes to pain encourage people to rely solely on external services, such as the healthcare system and pharmaceutical companies, to manage the effects of pain. By igniting the conversation for better health at home, people can take ownership of their health to not only manage, but prevent chronic and acute body pain.
Equipping people with the tools they need to take ownership of their health and lifestyle behaviour
In the remote working era, the potential health risk of rising body pain means the healthcare service will not have the resources available to respond to this. With two in three pain sufferers currently identifying the origin of their pain as lifestyle related, prevention through lifestyle changes – such as improved posture whilst working – will be crucial.
Organisations can, and should, play an essential role in igniting the conversation for better health at home and equipping people with the tools they need to manage their health. The future of patient-driven healthcare relies on partnerships, which span the entire value chain of health and wellness service and care. The healthcare industry, medical and pharmaceutical companies, as well as technology businesses can combine specialisms and resources to equip people with the tools they need to prevent pain. This may be a mind-shift for some, but it is a shift that has to happen as collaboration opens up new possibilities for health management and improved patient outcomes.
Through collaboration, pharmacological treatments can be complemented with non-drug related tools, therapies and treatments to boost pain tolerance. A recent study demonstrates the potential impact of combining technology with traditional heat therapy – improving patients’ pain pressure threshold by almost a third (32%). Health and medical organisations should continue to invest research and issue awareness campaigns to address patient needs, and therefore enable patients to proactively seek alternative methods of treatment to manage pain.
Already, new technologies have brought about a new era of remote patient monitoring, encouraging patients to manage their own health at home. This has been achieved by combining specialisms and sharing data, to enable patients to take control of their health. If this can be developed further and transferred to pain management, patients will be empowered to monitor their health, and make changes to their lifestyle to prevent the onset of acute (and potentially chronic) pain at home.
By Lucia Prada, Marketing Director, Omron Healthcare EMEA