Negative Beliefs About Working with Health Problems and Support at Work as Predictors for Return to Work for People Struggling with Common Mental Disorders

TL;DR

This study shows that negative beliefs about working with mental health issues and workplace support are key factors in returning to work after treatment.

Contribution

The study identifies two new significant predictors for return to work after mental health treatment.

Findings

Negative beliefs about working with health problems strongly predict return to work outcomes.

Workplace support is another significant predictor of return to work after treatment.

Combining both factors, only negative beliefs remained a unique predictor in multivariable analysis.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate predictors for return to work for people struggling with common mental disorders on sick leave or at risk of sick leave. The first aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a set of statements exploring different conditions at the workplace and assumptions about working with health problems, by investigating the factor structure, reliability and construct validity of these statements. The second aim of this study was to investigate the predictive value of the identified factors.

A total of 797 patients from an outpatient mental health clinic were included in a naturalistic observational study. The study design was longitudinal. The participants filled out self-report questionnaires pre- and post-treatment.

A principal component factor analysis with a varimax rotation identified two factors, Negative beliefs about working with health problems and Support at work, displaying high internal consistency, 0.83 and 0.84, respectively. Separately, both factors were significant predictors of full return to work after treatment. The final multivariable analysis including both factors left Negative beliefs about working with health problems as a significant predictor explaining unique variance.

Negative beliefs about working with health problems and Support at work are important predictors for work status after treatment and should therefore be addressed during treatment for common mental disorders to assist people return to work.