Back pain, dysphoric versus euphoric moods and the experience of stress and effort in female hospital staff

A total of 547 female hospital staff participated in a study on the associations of perceived stress and effort with the experience of moods (dysphoric: DM; euphoric: EM) and musculoskeletal back pain. Significant bivariate coefficients of correlation emerged between (i) stress, efforts, dysphoric mood and (ii) back pain for the whole sample of subjects. Moreover, there was a general trend for neck and shoulder pain to be closely related to DM among staff in departments with high emotional load and to work-specific stress among staff in departments with high physical load, whereas bivariate relations of EM with back pain were non-significant. However, path analyses supported a possible mediating role for dysphoric mood, as well as a possible moderating role for euphoric mood, upon relations between back pain and stress and efforts to cope at work. Moreover, our findings indicate that musculoskeletal pain is associated with a more extensive list of unpleasant moods than is previously assumed in the literature on the role of mood in muscle tension and pain. Results suggest that in order to reduce back pain in female hospital staff, attention should be directed not only to the sources of extrinsic physical load. Especially in order to reduce neck and shoulder pain, interventions should also seek to create an occupational climate that reduces the experience of dysphoric mood and increases the experience of euphoric mood.