Several factors were found to be associated with disability at follow-up for at least two different pain symptoms .
However , owing to insufficient studies , no generic risk factors for sick leave were identified .
Conclusions Multiple site pain , high pain severity , older age , baseline disability and longer pain duration were identified as potential prognostic factors for disability across pain sites .
There was limited evidence that anxiety and depression were associated with disability in patients with subacute pain , indicating that these factors may not play as large a role as expected in developing disability due to a pain condition .
Objective This systematic review aims to identify generic prognostic factors for disability and sick leave in subacute pain patients .
Increasing value and reducing waste in research design, conduct, and analysis
Correctable weaknesses in the design , conduct , and analysis of biomedical and public health research studies can produce misleading results and waste valuable re sources . Small effects can be difficult to distinguish from bias introduced by study design and analyses . An absence of detailed written protocol s and poor documentation of research is common . Information obtained might not be useful or important , and statistical precision or power is often too low or used in a misleading way . Insufficient consideration might be given to both previous and continuing studies . Arbitrary choice of analyses and an overemphasis on r and om extremes might affect the reported findings . Several problems relate to the research workforce , including failure to involve experienced statisticians and method ologists , failure to train clinical research ers and laboratory scientists in research methods and design , and the involvement of stakeholders with conflicts of interest . Inadequate emphasis is placed on recording of research decisions and on reproducibility of research . Finally , reward systems incentivise quantity more than quality , and novelty more than reliability . We propose potential solutions for these problems , including improvements in protocol s and documentation , consideration of evidence from studies in progress , st and ardisation of research efforts , optimisation and training of an experienced and non-conflicted scientific workforce , and reconsideration of scientific reward systems
Several factors were found to be associated with disability at follow-up for at least two different pain symptoms .
However , owing to insufficient studies , no generic risk factors for sick leave were identified .
Conclusions Multiple site pain , high pain severity , older age , baseline disability and longer pain duration were identified as potential prognostic factors for disability across pain sites .
There was limited evidence that anxiety and depression were associated with disability in patients with subacute pain , indicating that these factors may not play as large a role as expected in developing disability due to a pain condition .
Objective This systematic review aims to identify generic prognostic factors for disability and sick leave in subacute pain patients .