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Is it a Case of “Work-Anxiety” When Patients Report Bad Workplace Characteristics and Low Work Ability?

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Abstract

Aims Work-anxiety may produce overly negative views of the workplace that impair provider efforts to assess work ability from patient self-report. This study explores the empirical relationships between patient-reported workplace characteristics, work-anxiety, and subjective and objective work ability measures. Methods 125 patients in medical rehabilitation before vocational reintegration were interviewed concerning their vocational situation, and filled in a questionnaire on work-anxiety, subjective mental work ability and perceived workplace characteristics. Treating physicians gave independent socio-medical judgments concerning the patients’ work ability and impairment, and need for supportive means for vocational reintegration. Results Patients with high work-anxiety reported more negative workplace characteristics. Low judgments of work ability were correlated with problematic workplace characteristics. When controlled for work-anxiety, subjective work ability remained related only with social workplace characteristics and with work achievement demands, but independent from situational or task characteristics. Sick leave duration and physicians’ judgment of work ability were not significantly related to patient-reported workplace characteristics. Conclusions In socio-medical work ability assessments, patients with high work-anxiety may over-report negative workplace characteristics that can confound provider estimates of work ability. Assessing work-anxiety may be important to assess readiness for returning to work and initiating work-directed treatments.

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Acknowledgments

This research is part of a larger project on work-anxieties and their treatment in somatic rehabilitation, funded by the German Federal Pension Fund, 8011-106-31/31.107.

Author’s Contribution

The author carried out the investigation together with a clinical assistant. The author initiated the research question, designed the study, analysed the data and wrote the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Work- and Organizational Psychology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Beate Muschalla

  2. Institute of Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, 14195, Berlin, Germany

    Beate Muschalla

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  1. Beate Muschalla
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Correspondence to Beate Muschalla.

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Ethics Approval

The research project was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Potsdam and the German Federal Pension Fund and by the internal review board of the German Federal Pension Fund Agency (concerning patient information and voluntary participation, written informed consent, data security).

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Muschalla, B. Is it a Case of “Work-Anxiety” When Patients Report Bad Workplace Characteristics and Low Work Ability?. J Occup Rehabil 27, 106–114 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-016-9637-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-016-9637-2

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