Does job satisfaction predict early return to work after coronary angioplasty or cardiac surgery?

Abstract

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first prospective study that investigated whether job satisfaction predicts time to RTW after cardiac interventions. The results suggested that when patients are satisfied with their job and positively perceived their work environment, they will be more likely to early RTW, independently of socio-demographic, medical and psychological factors.

Return to work after coronary revascularization procedures and a patient’s job satisfaction: A prospective study

“…The key role in the RTW process after an acute cardiac event played by non-medical factors has been also explored by earlier research [3][4][5]9,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Recent studies have shown that the perception of work environment, which can be reflected in work stress and job satisfaction, has a strong effect on both people's decision to RTW [16,21,22] and duration of sickness absence [15,16]. Other studies have shown that depression is common among cardiac patients and that it increases the risk for not resuming the job as well as the risk of longer time for RTW [3,9,39].…”

“…Several studies have investigated the health-related qua lity of life (HRQL) after cardiac interventions [10][11][12][13]. Most of these studies have found that predictors of HRQL after a heart surgery or coronary angioplasty were primarily psychological and not related to the illness severity [13][14][15][16]. Instead, research on professional life and work reintegration after cardiac interventions have focused mainly on the identification of factors predicting RTW (i.e., working/not working) or time for RTW [3,4,[17][18][19], while very few studies have investigated the quality of work resumption, in terms of a patient's job satisfaction and re-adaptation to work [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”

“…Most of these studies have found that predictors of HRQL after a heart surgery or coronary angioplasty were primarily psychological and not related to the illness severity [13][14][15][16]. Instead, research on professional life and work reintegration after cardiac interventions have focused mainly on the identification of factors predicting RTW (i.e., working/not working) or time for RTW [3,4,[17][18][19], while very few studies have investigated the quality of work resumption, in terms of a patient's job satisfaction and re-adaptation to work [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Recent studies suggested an important role of psychosocial work environment in the RTW process, with particular emphasis on work stress and job satisfaction [15,16,18,19,21,22].…”

“…Instead, research on professional life and work reintegration after cardiac interventions have focused mainly on the identification of factors predicting RTW (i.e., working/not working) or time for RTW [3,4,[17][18][19], while very few studies have investigated the quality of work resumption, in terms of a patient's job satisfaction and re-adaptation to work [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Recent studies suggested an important role of psychosocial work environment in the RTW process, with particular emphasis on work stress and job satisfaction [15,16,18,19,21,22]. Dekkers-Sànchez et al [23] have recently explored factors promoting sustained RTW of employees on long-term sick leaves and underlined the key role played by the work environment and subjective attitude towards work (e.g., work motivation, positive meaning of work, cognitions and RTW expectations).…”

“…In view of the influence of job satisfaction on the RTW process, it is important to understand which factors produce job satisfaction among employees who return to work after a long-term period of sick leave due to cardiac health problems. However, few studies have investigated the work adjustment process in terms of workers' perception of their psychosocial work environment after a longterm sick leave [12,[15][16][17][18][19]. For example, a recent study by Waszkowska et al has found that patients maladapted to work have higher levels of depression, anxiety and lowered work ability compared to the well-adapted group after myocardial infarction [12].…”