Do psychological job demands, decision control and social support predict return to work three months after a return-to-work(RTW) programme? The rapid-RTW cohort study

摘要

BACKGROUND:Long-term sickness absence is a considerable health and economic problem in the industrialised world. Factorsthat might predict return to work (RTW) are therefore of interest.OBJECTIVE:To examine the impact of psychosocial work characteristics on RTW three months after the end of a RTWprogramme.METHODS:A cohort study of 251 sick-listed employees from 40 different treatment and rehabilitation services in Norwayrecruited from February to December 2012. The Job Content Questionnaire was used to gather information on the psychosocialwork conditions. Full or partial RTW was measured three months after the end of the RTW programme, using data from the nationalsickness absence register. Logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate the association between the psychosocialwork characteristics and RTW.RESULTS:Having low psychological job demands (OR = 0.4, 95% CI: 0.2–0.9), highco-worker-(OR = 3.4, 95% CI: 1.5–5.8),andsupervisor support(OR = 3.4, 95% CI: 1.6–7.3), and being in a low-strain job (low job demands and high control) (OR = 4.6,95% CI: 1.1–18.6) were predictive of being in work three months after the end of the RTW programme, after adjusting for severalpotential prognostic factors.CONCLUSION:Interventions aimed at returning people to work might benefit from putting more emphasise on psychosocialwork characteristics in the future