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 .
A longitudinal study on the predictive validity of the fear–avoidance model in low back pain
& NA ; Recently , fear – avoidance models have been quite influential in underst and ing the transition from acute to chronic low back pain ( LBP ) . Not only has pain‐related fear been found to be associated with disability and increased pain severity , but also treatment focused at reducing pain‐related fear has shown to successfully reduce disability levels . In spite of these developments , there is still a lack in well‐ design ed prospect i ve studies examining the role of pain‐related fear in acute back pain . The aim of the current study was to prospect ively test the assumption that pain‐related fear in acute stages successfully predicts future disability .  Subjects were primary care acute LBP patients consulting because of a new episode of LBP ( ≤3 weeks ) . They completed question naires on background variables , fear – avoidance model variables and LBP outcome ( Grade d Chronic Pain Scale , GCPS ) at baseline , 3 , 6 , and 12 months follow‐up and at the end of the study . Two‐hundred and twenty‐two acute LBP patients were included , of whom 174 provided full follow‐up information ( 78.4 % ) . A backward ordinal regression analysis showed previous LBP history and pain intensity to be the most important predictors of end of study GCPS . Of the  fear – avoidance model  variables , only negative affect added to this model . Our results do not really support the longitudinal validity of the fear – avoidance model , but they do feed the discussion on the role of pain‐related fear in early stages of LBP
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 .