Sustainable Return to Work: A Systematic Review Focusing on Personal and Social Factors

Abstract

Purpose A systematic review was conducted to evaluate the impact of important personal and social factors on sustainable return to work (RTW) after ill-health due musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and common mental disorders (CMDs) and to compare the effects of these personal and social factors across both conditions. Sustainable RTW is defined as a stable full-time or part-time RTW to either original or modified job for a period of at least 3 months without relapse or sickness absence re-occurrence. Methods A literature search was conducted in 13 databases and 79 studies were selected for the review, of which the methodological design was graded as very high, high and low quality. Results The most consistent evidence for achieving sustainable RTW for both MSDs and CMDs was from support from line managers or supervisors and co-workers, positive attitude, self-efficacy, young age and higher education levels. Job crafting, economic status, length of absence and job contract/security showed promising results, but too few studies exist to draw definite conclusions. Results regarding gender were inconsistent. Conclusions This review demonstrates that a variety of personal and social factors have positive and negative influences on sustainable RTW. We suggest that the social environment and how it interrelates with personal factors like attitudes and self-efficacy should be studied in more detail in the future as the inter-relationship between these factors appears to impact positively on sustainable RTW outcomes. Areas for future research include more high-quality studies on job crafting, economic status/income, length of absence, job contract/security and gender.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s10926-019-09832-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Returning to Work After Sick Leave – The Role of Work Demands and Resources, Self-Efficacy, and Social Support

“…On the other hand, gaining back good health resulted in increased return-to-work self-efficacy. Etuknwa et al (2019) conducted a systematic review in order to evaluate the impact of key personal as well as social factors that contribute to sustainable return to work among individuals with musculoskeletal disorders and common mental disorders. They concluded that sustainable return to work was associated with self-efficacy.…”

“…They concluded that sustainable return to work was associated with self-efficacy. Out of seven studies, which focused on examining the effects of self-efficacy and the returning to work process, all of them provided moderate evidence suggesting that those employees with higher self-efficacy during their return to work have a higher likelihood of sustainable return to work than those with lower perceived self-efficacy (Etuknwa et al, 2019).…”

Return to work a bumpy road: A qualitative study on experiences of work ability and work situation in individuals with chronic whiplash-associated disorders

“…The ndings underscore that individuals with chronic WAD need to feel understood and acknowledged by their managers, colleagues, family, health care providers and other stakeholders during this process. According to previous studies, this bumpy road may be explained by different strategies to cope with uctuations in symptoms, but also by poor self-e cacy [28], a mismatch between stakeholder expectations [29,30] and/or insu cient support from health care [17,19,31], the SIA [17,19] or employer [32,33]. Our ndings show how the support for return to work for individuals with chronic WAD can be strengthened.…”

“…Managers are suggested to play a key role in in uencing the balance between the resources of the individual and work by organizing the work according to the requirements and capabilities of the individual [36]. Sustainable return to work after musculoskeletal disorders and common mental disorders is in uenced by an interplay of multiple factors, among which the most consistent evidence was found for support from leaders and co-workers [33]. The importance of emotional and practical support, in terms of timely work adjustments and ergonomics, from the manager was highly emphasized in the interviews as contributing to participants' ability to work, as was also the importance of being part of a working environment with occupational health services, a good psychosocial climate, and co-worker support.…”

Prognostic Factors for Staying at Work for Partially Sick-Listed Workers with Subjective Health Complaints: A Prospective Cohort Study.

“…Our findings are consistent with those of a previous study that reported that non sick-listed women with fibromyalgia, who adopted successful strategies to cope with their problems, managed to continue to work without sickness absence [ 39 ]. Other studies have also showed that workers with effective coping strategies have better outcomes in their work functioning [ 8 , 40 , 41 ]. In addition, workers with good coping strategies seem to have a better self-efficacy, are more resilient and are better able to use past experiences to adapt their strategies [ 42 ].…”