A brief work-oriented intervention targeting musculoskeletal and mental health disorders: Exploring work disability outcomes in a prospective study

Background

Work disability due to musculoskeletal and mental health disorders constitutes one of the greatest social and labor market challenges. There is a need to investigate the long-term impact of interventions provided to employees.

Objective

To investigate if a brief work-oriented intervention targeting musculoskeletal and mental health disorders affected the risk of work disability.

Methods

A prospective study using national register data was designed. The intervention group consisted of all patients (n = 6348) who in the years 2008–2017 participated in a brief intervention at an outpatient clinic in the secondary health care service. The comparison group (n = 25,354) consisted of employees sick-listed for musculoskeletal or mental health disorders in the same years as the intervention group. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to model the effect of the intervention on the risk of future disability pension. Overall and subgroup analyses for gender and diagnoses were conducted for various categories of full-time equivalent number of days lost to work.

Results

Generally, there was a pattern of increased risk of disability among patients in the intervention group if they participated in the intervention in an early phase of sick leave. This pattern was found in the overall analysis, for males, females, and patients with musculoskeletal disorders. Except for patients with only musculoskeletal disorders, there was a pattern of reduced risk of disability with sick leave of between three and six months.

Conclusions

Overall, the intervention did not reduce the risk of disability. However, the results do indicate that intervention timing may be of significance.

https://doi.org/10.1177/10519815251353214