Method
Protocol and Registration
Eligibility Criteria
Population
Indicator/Intervention
Control
Outcome
Review 1: facilitators of and barriers to return-to-work (qualitative studies) | ||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Study | Country | Sample size | Population; type of injury/illness | Method of data collection | Research focus | |||||||||
Bunzli et al. 2017 [28] | AU | 93 | Compensable musculoskeletal or psychological injury; 71% male; mean age, 48 years | Individual interviews (semi-structured) | Influence of the wider social context on injured workers’ fear of (re)injury and RTW behaviour | |||||||||
Buys et al. 2017 [29] | AU | 17 | Non-specific work-related injury or illness; 41.1% male; (age: 35–64 years) | Group interviews (semi-structured) | The relationship between disability management and organisational culture in Australian and Canadian organisations | |||||||||
Cheng et al. 2011 [30] | CN | 12 | Non-specific work-related injury or illness; 75% male; mean age in years (SD), 34.77 (4.94) | Focus groups | The views of key RTW stakeholders on necessary activities for RTW coordination | |||||||||
Kosny et al. 2012 [31] | CA | 9 | Non-specific work-related injury or illness; all male; (Age: 40–60+ years) | Focus groups | The role that co-workers play after a work-related injury and during the RTW process in the unionized, electrical construction sector | |||||||||
Lysaght et al. 2008 [32] | CA | 18 | Non-specific work-related injury or illness; 22.2% male; mean age, 47.7 years | Individual interviews (open) | Workplace disability support | |||||||||
MacEachen et al. 2007 [33] | CA | 37 | Non-specific work-related injury or illness; 62.2% male; (age: 30–69 years) | Individual interviews (semi-structured) | Injured worker peer support groups | |||||||||
Mansfield et al. 2014 [34] | CA | 13 | Electrical workers who have experienced an electrical injury at work; all male | Individual interviews (semi-structured) | Social, institutional, and relational elements that workers perceived to influence RTW | |||||||||
Mullen et al. 2015 [35] | US | 16 | Nurses who have experienced work-related musculoskeletal pain/disorders; all female; mean age in years (SD), 51.5 (7.4) | Individual interviews (semi-structured) | Nurses perspectives of obstacles and motivations to return to work | |||||||||
Norland et al. 2013 [36] | SE | 12 | Work-related exhaustive disorder (burnout); 16.7% male; mean age, 39 years | Individual interviews (semi-structured) | Experiences and thoughts in the process of RTW | |||||||||
Soklaridis et al. 2010 [37] | CA | 6 | Work-related back pain | Focus groups | Psychosocial variables that influence RTW | |||||||||
Thornthwaite et al. 2017 [38] | AU | 20 | Non-specific work-related injury or illness; 60% male | Individual interviews (semi-structured) | Perceptions and experiences of injured workers interactions with insurers and employers |
Review 2: predictors of return-to-work (cohort and case control studies) | ||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Study | Country | Sample size | Population; type of injury/illness | Design | Injury onset to baseline | Follow-up period | Outcome | Predictors | ||||||
Cohort studies | ||||||||||||||
de Vente et al. 2015 [40] | NL | 71 | Work-related stress complaints; 58% female; mean age in years (SD), 41.61 (9.48) | Prospective cohort | 2 weeks to 6 months | 13 months | RTW (full return at follow-up) | Co-worker and supervisor support | ||||||
Jetha et al. 2017 [42] | AU | 551 | Work-related musculoskeletal pain/disorders; 48.8% male; 18–55+ years | Prospective cohort | > 10 days to 2 months since claim accepted | 6 months | Sustained RTW (28 days or longer; baseline: 1–6 months post-injury; follow-up: 6 months after baseline) | Supervisor support; co-worker support | ||||||
Kong et al. 2012 [43] | CN | 335 | Non-specific work-related injury or illness; 86% male; mean age in years (SD), 36.3 (9.7) | Retrospective cohort | Unknown | 3–8 months | RTW (sustained for at least 3 continuous months during follow-up) | Family attitudes to RTW; personal feeling on social support for RTW | ||||||
Li-Tsang et al. [45] | HK | 75 | Work-related repetitive strain injuries (age: 20–65 years) | Prospective cohort | < 3 years | – | RTW (employment status; 3.5 years post-injury) | Short Form 36 (SF-36) (social functioning) | ||||||
Marois et al. 2009 [46] | CA | 222 | Work-related musculoskeletal pain/disorders; 59% male; mean age in years (SD), 39.1 (9.4) | Prospective cohort | Minimum 12 weeks | - | RTW (full-time or part-time, or those capable of RTW but unable due to obstacles unrelated to their injury or illness) | Loss of employment relationship; maintenance of contact between employee/employer; co-worker relationships; social isolation | ||||||
Netterstrom et al. 2015 [47] | DK | 223 | Work-related common mental disorders; 19.7% male; mean age in years (SD), 44.2 (8.8) | Prospective cohort | Minimum 2 months | 1 and 3 years | RTW (full time at baseline or follow-up) | Social support from colleagues and leader; low degree of justice; bullying | ||||||
Reme et al. 2012 [48] | US | 496 | Work-related back pain; 58.1% male; mean age in years (SD), 37 (11.3) | Prospective cohort | < 14 days | 3 months | RTW (work status at follow-up) | Workplace friendship; organisational support | ||||||
Case–control studies | ||||||||||||||
Boot et al. 2014 [39] | CA | 1561 | Work-related back pain; 50.7% male; mean age in years (SD), 38.9 (11.1) | Case-control | – | 12 months | RTW (any, including same/different employer, or modified work at follow-up) | Supervisor support | ||||||
Holtedahl et al. 2007 [41] | NO | 174 | Non-specific work-related injury or illness; 56.8% male; mean age in years (SD), 43 (11) | Case-control | – | – | RTW (1–10 years post-injury; working full time, not working) | Social functioning (SF-36) | ||||||
Lee et al. 2015 [44] | KR | 2000 | Non-specific work-related injury or illness; 84.3% male | Case-control | – | – | RTW (job retention, reemployment, unpaid family worker, self-employment; 24 months after terminating medical care) | Maintenance of relationship with employer | ||||||
St-Arnaud et al. 2007 [49] | CA | 1850 | Work-related common mental disorders; 26% male; mean age in years (SD), 45 (8.3) | Case-control | – | – | RTW (not further specified; within 12 months) | Conflict with supervisors and/or co-workers; recognition of efforts | ||||||
Watt et al. 2015 [50] | AU | 110 | Non-specific work-related injury or illness; 39% male; mean age in years (SD), 46.40 (11.06) | Case-control | – | – | RTW (durable: currently employed or previous employed > 12 months; non-durable: < 12 months) | Relationships with superior and colleagues; social support outside of the workplace |
Study Type
Information Sources and Search Strategy
Data Management and Selection Process
Data Collection
Risk of Bias
Review 1: facilitators of and barriers to return-to-work (qualitative studies) | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aims clearly stated | Appropriate method | Appropriate design to address research aims | Appropriate recruitment strategy | Data collection addressed research issue | Relationship between researcher/participants adequately considered | Ethical issues taken into consideration | Sufficient data analysis rigor | Clear statement of findings | |
Bunzli et al. 2017 [28] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Buys et al. 2017 [29] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Cheng et al. 2011 [30] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Kosny et al. 2012 [31] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Lysaght et al. 2008 [32] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
MacEachen et al. 2007 [33] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Mansfield et al. 2014 [34] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Mullen et al. 2015 [35] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Norland et al. 2013 [36] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
Soklaridis et al. 2010 [37] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Thornthwaite et al. 2017 [38] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | ✓ |
Review 2: predictors of return-to-work (cohort and case control studies) | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cohort | Clear focused issued | Appropriate cohort recruitment | Exposure accurately measured | Outcome accurately measured | Important confounding factors identified | Important confounding factors accounted for | Follow-up complete enough | Follow-up long enough |
–
|
de Vente et al. 2015 [40] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Jetha et al. 2017 [42] | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | |
Kong et al. 2012 [43] | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Li-Tsang et al. [45] | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | - | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Marois et al. 2009 [44] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | |
Netterstrom et al. 2015 [47] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Reme et al. 2012 [48] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Watt et al. 2015 [50] | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | – |
Case control | Clearly focused issued | Appropriate method | Appropriate cases recruitment | Appropriate control selection | Exposure accurately measured | Important confounding factors identified | Important confounding factors accounted for |
–
|
–
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Boot et al. 2014 [39] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ||
Holtedahl et al. 2007 [41] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ||
Lee et al. 2015 [46] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ||
St-Arnaud et al. 2007 [49] | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | ✓ | ✗ |
Results
Study Selection
Characteristics of Included Studies
Review 1
Social Facilitators
Contact and Good Communication
Genuine Care and Concern
Organisational Trust
Validation and Injury Legitimacy
Advocacy Support
Family Support
Relationships with Work Community
Social Barriers
Poor Communication and Support
Impersonal Process
Lack of Organisational Trust
Hostile Reactions and Judgement
Exclusion and Isolation
Review 2
Construct | Studies measuring construct | How construct was measured | Univariate | Multivariate | Outcome | Controlled for | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Baseline | Follow up | Baseline | Follow up | ||||||
Organisational social factors | |||||||||
Organisational support | Reme et al. 2012 [48] | Eight-item shortened version of the Perceived Organization Support Scale (7-point scale) | ✓ (OR 0.88) | – | – | – | RTW (work status at 3 month follow-up) | – | |
Supervisor social factors | |||||||||
Supervisor support | deVente et al. 2015 [40] | Subscale of Job Content Questionnaire (4-point scale) | ✕ | – | – | – | RTW (full return for at least 1 month, within 13 months post-injury) | – | |
Jetha et al. 2017 [42] | Three questions were posed on supervisor support (five point scale) | ✓ NR | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | Sustained RTW (28 days or longer; baseline: 1 to 6 months post-injury; follow-up: 6 months after baseline) | Age, gender, injury type, time since injury, work-context factors + Reaction factors Follow up: +RTW at baseline, time off | ||
Netterstrom et al. 2015 [47] | Subscale of Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) (4-point scale) | ✓ (r = − .147) | – | ✓ NR ✕ | – | RTW (full time; baseline: 1 year; follow-up: 3 years) | Age, gender, marital status, and occupational position Severity of illness | ||
Watt et al. 2015 [50] | Questionnaire: Experience and Evaluation of Work (QEEW)—relationships with superiors subscale (4-point converted to 0–100) | ✓ (η2 = 0.14) | – | – | – | RTW (durable: currently employed or previous employed > 12 months; non-durable: <12 months) | – | ||
Supervisor injury response | Boot et al. 2014 [39] | Interview question based on literature (multi-choice) ‘Please tell me whether any of the following list of reactions that your supervisor may have had to your accident/injury apply to your case’ (eight items yes–no) | ✓ (OR: 1.7) | – | – | – | RTW (any, including same/different employer, or modified work at follow up; follow-up: 12 months) | – | |
Jetha et al. 2017 [42] | Given eight reaction types and asked if applicable to experience (yes–no) | ✓ (w = 0.17) | ✓ (w = 0.18) | ✓ (OR 1.6)
✓
(OR 2.3) | ✓ (OR 1.6)
✕
| Sustained RTW (28 days or longer; baseline: 1 to 6 months post-injury; follow-up: 6 months after baseline) | Age, gender, injury type, time since injury, work-context factors + Support factors Follow up: +RTW at baseline, time off | ||
Relationship w/employer | St Arnaud et al. 2007 [49] | Developed questionnaire that asked related questions | ✓ (PR 1.04) | – | ✓ (PR 1.00) | – | RTW (not further specified; within 12 months) | Age, gender, job type, working conditions, work-related factors | |
Maintenance of relationship w/employer during time absent | Lee et al. 2015 [44] | Data from the first PSWCI, published in June 2014 | ✓ (w = 0.21) | – | ✓ (OR 1.79) | – | RTW (job retention, reemployment, unpaid family worker, self-employment; 24 months after terminating medical care) | Age, gender, education, smoking, alcohol, income, registered as disabled, occupational characteristics, physician-related factors, employer-related factors | |
Co-worker social factors | |||||||||
Co-worker social support | deVente et al. 2015 [40] | Subscale of Job Content Questionnaire (4-point scale) | ✕ | – | – | – | RTW (full return for at least 1 month, within 13 months post-injury) | – | |
Jetha et al. 2017 [42] | Five questions were posed on co-worker support (5 point scale) | ✓ NR | ✓ NR | ✕ | ✕ | Sustained RTW (28 days or longer; baseline: 1 to 6 months post-injury; follow-up: 6 months after baseline) | Age, gender, injury type, time since injury, work-context factors + Reaction factors Follow up: +RTW at baseline, time off | ||
Netterstrom et al. 2015 [47] | Subscale of Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) (4-point scale) | ✓ (r = − .141) | – | ✓ NR X | – | RTW (full time; baseline: 1 year; follow-up: 3 years) | Age, gender, marital status, and occupational position Not specified | ||
Watt et al. 2015 [50] | Questionnaire on the Experience and Evaluation of Work (QEEW): relationships with colleagues subscale (4-point converted to 0-100) | ✓ (η2 = 0.07) | – | – | – | RTW (durable: currently employed or previous employed > 12 months; non-durable: <12 months) | – | ||
Co-worker injury response | Jetha et al. 2017 [42] | Given five reaction types and asked if they applied to their experience (yes–no) | ✕ | ✓ (w = 0.10) | ✕ | ✕ | Sustained RTW (28 days or longer; baseline: 1 to 6 months post-injury; follow-up: 6 months after baseline) | Age, gender, injury type, time since injury, work-context factors + Support factors Follow up: +RTW at baseline, time off | |
Relationship w/colleagues | Marois et al. 2009 [46] | Existing database. Used semi-structured interview and self-administered questionnaires | ✕ | – | – | – | RTW (full-time, part-time, or capable of RTW but unable due to obstacles unrelated to work injury or illness) | – | |
Reme et al. 2012 [48] | Workplace Friendship Scale; Six items (7-point scale) | ✕ | – | – | – | RTW (work status at 3 month follow-up) | – | ||
St Arnaud et al. 2007 [49] | Developed questionnaire that asked related questions | ✕ | – | ✕ | – | RTW (not further specified; within 12 months) | Age, gender, job type, working conditions, work-related factors | ||
Non-work social factors | |||||||||
Family/friends | Kong et al. 2012 [43] | Self-reported family’s attitude on RTW (4—response multi-choice; less than positive, no comment, positive, unknown) | ✓ NR ✓ | – | ✓ (HR: 4.0) | – | RTW (sustained for at least 3 continuous months during follow-up: 3 to 8 months) Absence Duration | Gender, marital status, residential status, enterprise ownership when injury occurred, job position, working years pre-injury, monthly salary pre-injury, injury body part, injury nature, communication with employers, and occupational rehabilitation exercises | |
Watt et al. 2015 [50] | Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) (12-items; 7-point scale; overall score) | ✕ | – | – | – | RTW (durable: currently employed or previous employed > 12 months; non-durable: <12 months) | – | ||
Social functioning | Boot et al. 2014 [39] | Short Form Health Survey (SF-36)—social functioning subscale, range (0–100) | ✕ | – | – | – | RTW (any, including same/different employer, or modified work at follow up; follow-up: 12 months) | – | |
Holtedahl et al. 2007 [41] | Short Form Health Survey (SF-36): Social functioning subscale (0-100) | ✓ (d = 0.93) | – | – | – | RTW (post-injury: working full time, not working) | – | ||
Li Tsang et al. 2007 [45] | Short Form Health Survey (SF-36): social functioning subscale (0-100) | – | – | ✓ NR | – | RTW (employment status; 3.5 years post-injury) | Sex, age, educational level, type of injury | ||
Overall social factors | |||||||||
Overall social support | Kong et al. 2012 [43] | Self-reported feelings on Social support 4-response multi-choice (very satisfied, satisfied, dissatisfied, no comment) | ✓ (w = 0.24) ✕ | - | ✓ (HR: 2.1) | – | Sustained RTW (3 continuous months during follow-up) Absence duration | Gender, marital status, residential status, enterprise ownership when injury occurred, job position, working years pre-injury, monthly salary pre-injury, injury body part, injury nature, communication with employers, and occupational rehabilitation exercises |