The Impact of Pain Reduction on Productivity and Cognitive Function: A Penn-IFMR Collaboration in India

Physical pain is a common but largely overlooked aspect of the lives of the poor, yet its consequences are not well understood. While evidence is scarce, chronic pain appears to be highly prevalent among the poor in developing countries due to frequent involvement in hard physical labor, uncomfortable living conditions, and limited access to adequate medical care.

The proposed seed project seeks to take the first steps in understanding the broader causal impact of physical pain on the lives of the poor via a collaboration between faculty and students at the University of Pennsylvania and a local partner organization, The Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR). The project will enroll 360 low-income women in Chennai, India in a randomized-controlled trial in which participants are randomly assigned to receive 600 mg of ibuprofen, a placebo pill, or no medication (pure control). All participants will engage in a task identical to their everyday work to measure their economic productivity, a battery of cognitive tests, a task providing an objective benchmark for pain ratings, and a survey to gather demographic and health information. This study will provide data to apply for funding for a larger and longer duration study of the impact of pain reduction on productivity in the workplace, as measured by daily earnings and cognitive outcomes.