Longitudinal relations between psychosocial work environment,stress and the development of musculoskeletal pain

Exposure to psychosocial stressors at work is hypothesized to be related to the development of musculoskeletal pain through the mechanism of work‐related stress. This hypothesis has received support in cross‐sectional studies. Few longitudinal studies that specifically address this hypothesized mediating mechanism are however reported in the literature. The aim of the present study was to test this hypothesis in a longitudinal process model. A 3‐wave mixed occupations cohort‐study was performed with a baseline questionnaire survey in 2004; and with 2‐year follow‐ups in 2006 and 2008. A latent variable process model was tested using structural equation modeling. Since focus of the study was on the process of pain development, only those participants considered pain free at baseline were included (n = 1 133). The results indicate that exposure to high work demands may cause long‐term work‐related stress. The hypotheses that work demands and control influence the development of pain, and that this relation is mediated by work‐related stress were not supported. No indications of reversed causality were found. In order to further elucidate the hypothesized stress mechanism, future research needs to focus on the development of site‐specific musculoskeletal pain in longitudinal studies including repeated measures with shorter lags between measurement waves. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.