“Fit for work and life”: an innovative concept to improve health and work ability of employees, integrating prevention, therapy and rehabilitation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2340/16501977-2822Keywords:
vocational rehabilitation, employment, occupational health, preventive health programme, work-site interventionAbstract
Objectives: To set up a comprehensive health programme for employees, with needs-based allocation to preventive and rehabilitative measures; and to eval-uate the effects of the programme on work ability and sick leave.
Design: Prospective single-group observational
study.
Methods: Employees of a university hospital were invit-ed to participate in needs-based interventions of preventive or rehabilitative character. Allocation followed screening questionnaires, anamnesis and clinical exam-ination. The selection of a preventive or rehabilitative measure appropriate to the needs of the patient
followed screening questionnaires, anamnesis and clinical examination. Preventive offers can include back training courses, water gymnastics or stress management exercises. Rehabilitative measures can include 3-6 weeks in- or outpatient rehabilitation or one week intensive outpatient rehabilitation. The main outcome parameters were work ability and sick leave duration.
Results: At this time of the project included 1,547 participants, who applied voluntarily to enter the programme. The mean age of participants was 44.3 years (standard deviation (SD) 10.3 years), and 72.0% were female. Needs-based allocation to a prevention (n=1,218) or a rehabilitation group (n=329) was effective, and enabled formation of 2 groups with different needs. Overall, more than half of the employees participating in the programme reported sick leave within the last 3 months. Participants in the preventive measures group reported significantly lower duration of sick leave than those in the rehabilitation group. Employees in the rehabilitation group had significantly lower work abil-ity (Work Ability Index (WAI) 30.4 vs 36.6), but higher effects at 6-month follow-up (WAI 33.4 (standardized effect size (SES) 0.51) vs 37.9 (SES 0.17)). In the prevention group mean sick leave reduced significantly from 1.9 to 1.3 weeks (p < 0.001) during the previous 3-month period, whereas in the rehabilitation group it reduced from 2.7 to 1.5 (p < 0.001) weeks.
Conclusion: Implementation of the comprehensive health programme was successful, using the multi-modal infrastructure of a university hospital. Allocation to suitable interventions in occupational health programmes following screening, anamnesis and clinical examination is an appropriate way to meet partici-pants’ needs. The programme resulted in improved work ability and less sick leave.
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Copyright (c) 2021 Christoph Gutenbrunner, Juliane Briest, Christoph Egen, Christian Sturm, Jörg Schiller, Kai G. Kahl, Uwe Tegtbur, Heike Fuhr, Christoph Korallus
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