NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women with fibromyalgia seem to benefit from being employed, maintaining their health status over time, study findings suggest.

However, employment did not appear to protect women from developing the condition, report Dr. Susan Reisine and colleagues at the University of Connecticut, School of Dental Medicine in Farmington.

Reisine's group reports their findings in the medical journal Arthritis and Rheumatism.

Fibromyalgia, which mostly affects women, is characterized by pain, fatigue, sleeplessness and body stiffness. The cause of this condition is not known and the few studies that have been done report mixed results on the prognosis.

Reisine and colleagues point out that previous research findings have suggest an association between employment and the health status of women with fibromyalgia. To further investigate, they followed 241 mostly white women who had fibromyalgia for an average of 4.9 years. About half of the women were employed.

The women were 47 years old at the start of the study and reported high levels of functional disability, similar to women with rheumatoid arthritis. The women also reported high levels of fatigue and depression, as well as average pain scores of 57 on a low-to-high scale of 1 to 100.

Over 5 years of observation, all health measures, except pain, declined significantly in the group, overall. However, women employed at the start of this observation period reported greater improvements in fatigue, functional status, and depression compared with unemployed women.

"This finding suggests that women with fibromyalgia can remain employed with no negative consequences to their condition," note Reisine and colleagues. They further propose women should attempt to remain employed "as a strategy to maintain better health."

The investigators suggest additional research assess whether race and ethnicity alter the associations reported in this study.

SOURCE: Arthritis and Rheumatism, December 2008.

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