Reducing long term sickness absence by an activating intervention in adjustment disorders: A cluster randomized controlled design. | Knowledge Translation for Employment Research Center

Authors:	van Erp, N., Giesen, F., van Weeghel, J., Kroon, H., Michon, H., Becker, D., McHugo, G., & Drake, R.
Year Published	2003
Publication	Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Volume	60
Number	6
Pages	429-437
Publisher	Williams and Wilkins
Background	Sickness leave is generally considered as a major source of societal costs in Western countries. With the increase in mental workload of the past decades, the fraction of psychological problems related to occupational stress has increased rapidly. These problems are also reported in the literature as emotional distress or stress related disorders.
Purpose	To compare an innovative activating intervention with care as usual (control group) for the guidance of employees on sickness leave because of an adjustment disorder. It was hypothesized that the intervention would be more effective than care as usual in lowering the intensity of symptoms, increasing psychological resources, and decreasing sickness leave duration.
Setting	The study was conducted at Royal KPN, a private company providing postal and telecom services.
Sample	The study sample included 192 people who were on sick leave.
Data Collection	Symptom intensity, sickness duration, and return to work rates were measured at 3 months and 12 months. Analyses were performed on an intention to treat basis.
Control	The control condition was care as usual.
Findings	At 3 months, significantly more patients in the intervention group had returned to work compared with the control group. At 12 months all patients had returned to work, but sickness leave was shorter in the intervention group than in the control group. The recurrence rate was lower in the intervention group. There were no differences between the two study groups with regard to the decrease of symptoms. At baseline, symptom intensity was higher in the patients than in a normal reference population, but decreased over time in a similar manner in both groups to approximately normal levels.
Conclusions	The experimental intervention for adjustment disorders was successful in shortening sick leave duration, mainly by decreasing long term absenteeism.
URL	http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1740545/
Disabilities	Emotional disturbance
Populations	Male & Female
Outcomes	Return to work
NIDILRR Funded	No
Research Design	Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs)
Peer Reviewed	Yes

Year Published

2003

Publication

Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Volume

60

Number

6

Pages

429-437

Publisher

Williams and Wilkins

Background

Sickness leave is generally considered as a major source of societal costs in Western countries. With the increase in mental workload of the past decades, the fraction of psychological problems related to occupational stress has increased rapidly. These problems are also reported in the literature as emotional distress or stress related disorders.

Purpose

To compare an innovative activating intervention with care as usual (control group) for the guidance of employees on sickness leave because of an adjustment disorder. It was hypothesized that the intervention would be more effective than care as usual in lowering the intensity of symptoms, increasing psychological resources, and decreasing sickness leave duration.

Setting

The study was conducted at Royal KPN, a private company providing postal and telecom services.

Sample

The study sample included 192 people who were on sick leave.

Data Collection

Symptom intensity, sickness duration, and return to work rates were measured at 3 months and 12 months. Analyses were performed on an intention to treat basis.

Control

The control condition was care as usual.

Findings

At 3 months, significantly more patients in the intervention group had returned to work compared with the control group. At 12 months all patients had returned to work, but sickness leave was shorter in the intervention group than in the control group. The recurrence rate was lower in the intervention group. There were no differences between the two study groups with regard to the decrease of symptoms. At baseline, symptom intensity was higher in the patients than in a normal reference population, but decreased over time in a similar manner in both groups to approximately normal levels.

Conclusions

The experimental intervention for adjustment disorders was successful in shortening sick leave duration, mainly by decreasing long term absenteeism.

URL

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1740545/

Disabilities

Emotional disturbance

Populations

Male & Female

Outcomes

Return to work

NIDILRR Funded

No

Research Design

Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs)

Peer Reviewed

Yes