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Different work capacity impairments in patients with different work-anxieties

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International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Persons with work-anxieties are especially endangered for work capacity impairment and sick leave. Work capacity impairment is not directly due to symptoms but due to illness-related capacity disorders. Work capacity impairments can be described on different dimensions (e.g., social interaction, decision making and judgment, endurance, mobility). Understanding the type of work capacity impairment is important for reintegration interventions. This is the first study to investigate work capacity impairment in risk patients with different work-anxieties.

Methods

Two hundred and forty-four patients in inpatient rehabilitation suffering from work-anxieties were investigated concerning degree of work capacity impairment. Capacity impairment was described on 13 capacity dimensions according to the internationally evaluated observer-rating Mini-ICF-APP (impairment grades 0–4, grade 2 and higher indicating clinically relevant observable impairment). A physician’s rating on global work ability prognosis was obtained along with sick leave duration during 6 months after assessment. Patients with different work-anxieties were compared concerning capacity impairments.

Results

Patients with different work-anxieties were impaired in different capacity dimensions: Work-related social anxiety went along with clinically relevant impairment in capacity of assertiveness (M = 2.40), anxiety of insufficiency went along with impaired capacity of endurance (M = 2.20), and work-related generalized worrying was accompanied by impairment in the capacity for decision making (M = 1.82). Specific capacity impairment dimensions were related to sick leave duration, while a global work ability prognosis was not.

Conclusions

The capacity approach is useful to describe work impairment more precisely and beyond symptoms. On this basis, reintegration-focusing interventions such as capacity training (e.g., social interaction training) or work adjustment (e.g., reducing exposure with interactional work tasks) can be initiated.

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Notes

  1. Diagnosis of general mental disorders was equally distributed in the patients with different work-anxieties. Only in eight out of 126 comparisons, some diagnoses were overrepresented: 13 patients with workplace phobia had a depressive episode, 11 had an agoraphobia, and 2 had an addiction problem. From patients with work-related anxiety of insufficiency, 27 had a depressive episode and 12 a social phobia. From patients with work-related social phobia, 10 had a personality disorder. From patients with work-related situational anxiety, 12 had a depressive episode. From patients with work-related generalized worrying, 55 had a generalized anxiety disorder.

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Acknowledgments

This research has been financially supported by the German Pension Fund. Grant No. 8011 - 106 - 31/31.107.

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  1. Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 24-25, 14476, Potsdam, Germany

    Beate Muschalla

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Correspondence to Beate Muschalla.

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Informed consent and ethical standard

Patients participated in this study with written informed consent. All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Potsdam.

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Muschalla, B. Different work capacity impairments in patients with different work-anxieties. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 89, 609–619 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-015-1099-x

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