Background: OA is one of the leading causes of chronic pain and mobility limitations and is the fastest-growing cause of disability worldwide and functional restrictions. The onset of OA starts at an age when people are still working and it has been shown that OA is strongly associated with reduced productivity and increased healthcare resource utilization among workforce participants. OA symptoms such as pain, disturbance of sleep and stiffness may impair occupational performance not only among those with physically demanding jobs but also in non-manual office workers. While the majority of studies investigated the association of OA and employment using cross-sectional data, few recent studies have examined the specific association of OA and work loss using longitudinal data . In a population-based cohort study, working age individuals with knee OA had almost twice the rate of (long-term) sick leave compared with the general population. While effective interventions for prevention of work loss due to disability have been recognized in diseases such as lower back pain and SLE , the association of OA and work loss is a relatively new research area and there is a paucity in the OA literature in terms of work loss prevention programmes . Identifying which groups are at high risk of work loss due to OA is an important first step in developing such programmes. Questions about pain’s interference with function and workplace support could be used to identify OA patients at risk of work loss. Most patients with OA are assessed and treated within primary care settings, but there seems to be a discrepancy between how doctors and patient define the importance of an illness. As OA and other rheumatic conditions seldom cause death, but have a major impact on health, health-related quality of life measures are better indicators of their impact than related mortality rates.