Individual Cognitive Social Capital and Its Relationship with Pain and Sick Leave Due to Pain in the Austrian Population

BACKGROUND Individual cognitive social capital has repeatedly been shown to be linked to health disparities in many dimensions. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between social capital and pain-related measures. METHODS 15,474 subjects older than 15 years were personally interviewed on subjective health, quality of life, health behaviour, and utilisation of healthcare in the Austrian Health Interview Survey. An indicator for cognitive social capital at the individual level consisting of nine questions targeted at different social resources was built and its association with pain-related items analysed. RESULTS Odds ratios, adjusted for age, chronic diseases, and educational level for having suffered from severe pain in the last 12 months were 2.02 (95% CI 1.77-2.03) in the lowest tertile and 1.30 (95% CI 1.14-1.47) in the middle tertile of social capital for men. The corresponding odds ratios for women were 2.28 (95% CI 2.01-2.59) and 1.30 (95% CI 1.15-1.46). In both sexes, pain intensity increased significantly with decreasing level of social capital. The proportion of subjects that have been on sick leave in the last 12 months due to pain were 16.3%, 12.0%, and 7.7% (P<0.001) from lowest to highest tertile of social capital in men, and 16.5%, 12.3%, and 6.7%, respectively (P<0.001) in women. CONCLUSION Our findings indicate that low cognitive social capital at individual level is significantly associated not only with higher prevalence of pain and higher pain intensity, but also with a higher chance for sick leave due to pain in employed subjects.