The relative importance of the domains of work functioning: evaluations of health-impaired employees, healthy employees, and employers

Abstract

Objective: To determine the relative importance of central work functioning domains and propose a method for composite weighted measurement of the concept "work functioning."

Methods: Health-impaired workers, healthy workers, and employers (n = 277) weighed work functioning domains by participating in a discrete choice experiment. A logistic regression model was tested to reveal the relative importance of the domains.

Results: The central domains are significant indicators of the work functioning of health-impaired workers. The domain with the highest relative importance is quality of work performance, followed by, respectively, recovery, quantity of work, and capacity to work. This pattern of results was observed in all subgroups.

Conclusions: The central domains are relevant indicators of the work functioning of health-impaired workers. Researchers should consider the relative importance of the domains and use the proposed weighting procedure, when measuring work functioning.