Prediction models of sickness absence in workers with common mental disorders

Summary:

Mental disorders are an important cause for sick leav e in the Dutch workforce. Sick leave due to mental disorders is mainly caused bij common mental disorders. Mostly disorders with aspecific stressrelated complaints or disorders with mild or moderate psychiatric complaints. The incidence of sickleave due to mental disorders is 2% with an average duration of 87 days. (Koopmans 2007) Employees with a first absence due to CMS 19% had a recurrence, 90% of the recurrences occurrred within 3 years with an median between the 8 and 14 months.

The study consists of two parts:

1. Predictionmodel of the duration of sick leace due to CMD’s
2. Predictionmodel for recurrences due to CMD’s

• Ad 1. How is the performance of the prediction model developed by Nieuwenhuijsen (2006) in predicting the duration of sickness absence in an heterogeneous population.
• Ad 2. Investigate which factors are associated with recurrences due to CMD’s. The aim is to develop a diagnostic tool for occupational physicians to recognize employees at risk of recurrent sick leave due to common mental disorders so that interventions can be targeted at employees at risk