Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 May 2;22(1):875.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13295-6.

Return to work factors and vocational rehabilitation interventions for long-term, partially disabled workers: a modified Delphi study among vocational rehabilitation professionals

Christa J C de Geus  1   2 , Maaike A Huysmans  3   4 , H Jolanda van Rijssen  1   2   5 , Johannes R Anema  1   2
Affiliations

Return to work factors and vocational rehabilitation interventions for long-term, partially disabled workers: a modified Delphi study among vocational rehabilitation professionals

Christa J C de Geus et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Long-term disability has a great impact on both society and workers with disabilities. Little is known about the barriers which prohibit workers with long-term disabilities from returning to work and which interventions are best suited to counteract these barriers. The main purpose of this study was to obtain consensus among professionals on important return to work (RTW) factors and effective vocational rehabilitation (VR) interventions for long-term (> 2 years), partially disabled workers. Our three research questions were: (1) which factors are associated with RTW for long-term disabled workers?; (2) which factors associated with RTW can be targeted by VR interventions?; and (3) which VR interventions are the most effective to target these factors?

Methods: A modified Delphi Study was conducted using a panel of 22 labour experts, caseworkers, and insurance physicians. The study consisted of several rounds of questionnaires and one online meeting.

Results: The multidisciplinary panel reached consensus that 58 out of 67 factors were important for RTW and that 35 of these factors could be targeted using VR interventions. In five rounds, the expert panel reached consensus that 11 out of 22 VR interventions were effective for at least one of the eight most important RTW factors.

Conclusions: Consensus was reached among the expert panel that many factors that are important for the RTW of short-term disabled workers are also important for the RTW of long-term partially disabled workers and that a substantial number of these factors could effectively be targeted using VR interventions. The results of this study will be used to develop a decision aid that supports vocational rehabilitation professionals in profiling clients and in choosing suitable VR interventions.

Keywords: Decision aid; Disability pension; Insurance physicians; Labour experts; Long-term sick leave; Return to work.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

HJvR is employed at the Dutch Social Security Institute. JRA is advisor of Amsterdam University Medical Centre’s spin-off companies Evalua Nederland BV and IKherstel BV. Johannes R. Anema holds a chair in Insurance Medicine sponsored by the Dutch Social Security Institute. CdG and MAH declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Henderson M, Glozier N, Elliott KH. Long term sickness absence. Br Med J. 2005;330:802–803. doi: 10.1136/bmj.330.7495.802. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Floderus B, Goransson S, Alexanderson K, Aronsson G. Self-estimated life situation in patients on long-term sick leave. J Rehabil Med. 2005;37(5):291–299. doi: 10.1080/16501970510034422. - DOI - PubMed
    1. National Institute for Public Health and the Environment . Cost of Work Incapacity. 2020.
    1. Dutch Social Security Agency . I am sick (WIA disability pension) 2020.
    1. Detaille SI, Heerkens YF, Engels JA, Van Der Gulden JWJ, Van Dijk FJH. Common prognostic factors of work disability among employees with a chronic somatic disease: a systematic review of cohort studies. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2009;35(4):261–281. doi: 10.5271/sjweh.1337. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types