Risk Assessment for Prolonged Sickness Absence Due to Musculoskeletal Disorders: Protocol for a Prospective Cohort Study

Overview

Journal BMC Musculoskelet Disord

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialties Orthopedics
Physiology

Date 2020 May 27

PMID 32450820

Citations 5

Authors

Anne Therese Tveter

Britt Elin Oiestad

Tarjei Langseth Rysstad

Fiona Aanesen

Alexander Tingulstad

Milada Cvancarova Smastuen

Margreth Grotle

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Musculoskeletal disorders are the leading cause of sickness absence and disability pension in Norway. There is strong evidence that long-term sickness absence due to musculoskeletal disorders are associated with a reduced probability of return to work (RTW). A way to meet the economic and resource-demanding challenges related to individual follow-up of this group is to identify and treat those individuals with a high risk of prolonged sickness. The overall purposes of this project are 1) to determine the most accurate screening tool to identify people at a high risk of prolonged sickness absence due to an musculoskeletal disorder, and 2) to investigate severity of musculoskeletal health, health-related quality-of-life, health care utilization, and costs across different risk profiles in people on sick leave due to a musculoskeletal disorder.

Methods: People older than 18 years of age on sick leave for at least 4 weeks due to a musculoskeletal disorder will be invited to participate in this prospective observational cohort study conducted within the Norwegian Welfare and Labor Administration (NAV) system in collaboration with OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University. The main outcome is sickness absence, obtained from the NAV registry. Data on sickness absence will be retrieved prospectively in the period from study inclusion to 12 months follow-up, and retrospectively 12 months before inclusion in the study. Possible risk factors will be self-reported by the participants at inclusion while health care utilization will be retrieved from registry data. To conduct analyses including 15 to 20 predictor variables, we aim at including 500-600 people on sick leave due to musculoskeletal disorders.

Discussion: This study may provide tools that can be used to identify individuals with high risk of prolonged sickness absence and may thus be important from both a socioeconomic and individual perspective. Further, the study may give valuable insight into identification of sickness absence profiles and the associations between these profiles and musculoskeletal health status, health-related quality of life and costs.

Trial Registration: Retrospectively registered in ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04196634, 27.11.2019).

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Modifiable prognostic factors of high societal costs among people on sick leave due to musculoskeletal disorders: findings from an occupational cohort study.

Killingmo R, Tveter A, Pripp A, Tingulstad A, Maas E, Rysstad T BMJ Open. 2024; 14(3):e080567.

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Validity and reliability of the Norwegian version of the Musculoskeletal Health Questionnaire in people on sick leave.

Tingulstad A, Van Tulder M, Rysstad T, Tveter A, Hill J, Grotle M Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2021; 19(1):191.

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Comparison of self-reported and public registered absenteeism among people on long-term sick leave due to musculoskeletal disorders: criterion validity of the iMTA Productivity Cost Questionnaire.

Killingmo R, Tveter A, Smastuen M, Storheim K, Grotle M Eur J Health Econ. 2021; 22(6):865-872.

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Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of adding motivational interviewing or stratified vocational advice intervention to usual case management on return to work for people with musculoskeletal disorders. The MI-NAV....

Oiestad B, Aanesen F, Lochting I, Storheim K, Tingulstad A, Rysstad T BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2020; 21(1):496.

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