WDPI Presentation Awards in Toronto for Wendy Koolhaas and Haitze de Vries

During the 3rd WDPI conference (Implementing Work Disability Prevention Knowledge) in Toronto Wendy Koolhaas won the Conference Presentation Award. The presentation reflects the results of the study "Effectiveness of a problem-solving based intervention to Prolong the working life of aging workers".

Haitze de Vries received the Poster Award. The title of his poster is '' 'I think positivity breeds positivity': The role of significant others in supporting Those with chronic musculoskeletal pain to stay at work". Meanwhile, the poster hangs in the hallway on the sixth floor.

Below are the abstracts of the two studies.

Effectiveness of a problem-solving based intervention to prolong the working life of ageing workers

Koolhaas W, Groothoff JW, De Boer MR, Van der Klink JJL, Brouwer S

Background

Due to the ageing workforce, evidence-based interventions are needed to prepare workers for the prospects of working longer. Whereas most interventions to extend working life are based on promoting workers’ health, the intervention ‘Staying healthy a work’ provides a self-directed cognitive behavioural strategy to enhance the problem-solving capacity of ageing workers towards sustainable employability. The effectiveness of the problem-solving based intervention compared to usual business is evaluated.

Methods

This study was designed as a quasi-experimental trial with a 1-year follow-up. Measurements were performed at baseline, three and 12 months. The problem-solving based intervention provides a strategy to increase the awareness of ageing workers with regard to their role and responsibility to create a sustainable healthy working life. The primary outcomes were work ability, vitality and productivity. Secondary outcomes were perceived fatigue, psychosocial work characteristics, work attitude, self-efficacy, and work engagement.

Results

Analyses were performed for 64 workers in the intervention and 61 workers in the usual business group respectively. No effects on productivity and adverse effects on work ability (B=-1.33, 95%CI -2.45 to -0.20) and vitality (OR=0.10, 95%CI 0.02-0.46) were found. Positive results were found for the secondary outcomes work attitude (B = 5.29, 95%CI 9.59 to 0.99), the self-efficacy persistence subscale (B = 1.45, 95%CI 0.43-2.48) and subscale skill discretion of the psychosocial work characteristics (B = 1.78, 95%CI 0.74-2.83).

Conclusions

The results of the problem-solving intervention showed no positive effects on the three outcome measures compared to usual business. Effectiveness was shown on three of the secondary outcome measures, i.e. work attitude, self-efficacy and skill discretion. Workers in the intervention group were better able to identify or discover effective solutions for specific problem encountered in working life compared to workers in the usual business group who received an annual appraisal.

'I think positivity breeds positivity': The role of significant others in supporting those with chronic musculoskeletal pain to stay at work

De Vries HJ, McCluskey S, Brooks J, Reneman MF, Brouwer S

Background

Several studies have proposed that significant others (spouse/close family member) can reinforce unhelpful pain cognitions, pessimism about the outcome of treatment and the unlikelihood of returning to work for those with chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP). However, research is rarely conducted with significant others of those with CMP who remain at work, and their influence on work participation remains unclear.

Methods

Two separate studies were conducted in the Netherlands and in the UK. In the Netherlands, workers with CMP and their spouses completed standard and significant other versions of the Multidimensional Pain Inventory, the Pain Self-efficacy Questionnaire and the Pain Catastrophizing Questionnaire (n=103). In the UK, semi-structured interviews based on the chronic pain version of the Illness Perceptions Questionnaire-Revised were conducted with workers with persistent back pain and their significant others (n=10).

Results

In the Dutch study, moderate to high levels of perceived self-efficacy and significant other supportive responses, moderate levels of solicitous and distracting responses, and low levels of punishing responses and catastrophizing were reported by both workers and their significant others in relation to the worker’s CMP. No significant differences existed between both sets of scores, with the exception of pain catastrophizing, whereby workers reported lower levels than their spouses (11.1 versus 14.4;p<0.01). Qualitative data from the <st1:country-region w:st="on"/>UK study supported these findings, further elaborating on the above concepts. Significant others described their support in terms of help with everyday activities, being encouraging to stay active, communicating about the pain, keeping a positive outlook, and admiring their spouses efforts to remain at work. Significant others were viewed as an important factor in helping maintain continued work participation by workers with CMP.

Conclusions

This cross-European, mixed-methods research indicated that significant others may positively contribute to continued work participation for those with CBestMP. These findings further highlight the importance of the worker’s social environment, and suggest that significant others could usefully inform vocational rehabilitation.