Receiving Return-To-Work Coordination at Swedish Primary Healthcare Clinics: A Register-Based Study Among People on...

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Primary Healthcare Research
• Public Health Policy

Background:

• Return-to-work (RTW) coordination is crucial for managing sickness absence (SA).
• Primary healthcare settings offer opportunities for RTW interventions.
• Identifying factors influencing RTW coordination receipt and its impact on SA is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate factors associated with receiving RTW coordination in primary healthcare.
• To determine the association between RTW coordination and the number of SA days.

Main Methods:

• A register study included 13,019 individuals with SA between March 2019 and February 2020.
• Logistic regressions analyzed factors for receiving RTW coordination.
• Negative binomial regressions assessed SA days over a ten-month follow-up.

Main Results:

• RTW coordination was associated with being female, aged 30-49, higher education, more healthcare contacts, higher SA days, and musculoskeletal or mental diagnoses.
• Mean SA days were 71.3 for those receiving RTW coordination versus 76.1 for others.
• Adjusted analyses found no significant association between RTW coordination and SA days.

Conclusions:

• RTW coordination appears targeted at individuals at higher risk of long-term SA, but potentially not all who could benefit.
• More precise methods are needed to identify individuals at risk of prolonged SA.
• The potential reduction in SA days requires further investigation and confirmation.