Work ability assessment in prolonged depressive illness.
BACKGROUND
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a complex disease and therefore the assessment of work ability in patients with MDD is complicated. A checklist has been developed to support such assessment.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the mean score and variation of work ability assessments undertaken by Dutch insurance physicians (IPs) in five real case history vignettes of MDD patients on long-term sick leave, with and without the aid of a checklist.


METHODS
In a post-test-only randomized experiment, 25 IPs assessed work ability for five cases on a scale of 0-100 without the use of the checklist, while 21 IPs used the checklist. Differences between groups in mean and absolute variation of work ability were tested with independent t-tests. Intraclass correlation (ICC) analysis was used to determine inter-rater reliability.


RESULTS
When using the checklist, the mean work ability score of all vignettes was 3-12 points higher than without its use. There was no difference in the variation in work ability scores per vignette and between groups. ICC was 0.64 for both groups.


CONCLUSIONS
The use of the checklist increased the mean score of work ability but had no effect on the variation in scores between assessors. The inter-rater reliability was moderate, independent of the use of the checklist.
Coronel Institute of Occupational Health, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, PO Box 22700, 1100 DE Amsterdam, The Netherlands. f.g.slebus@amc.uva.nl
F G
FG
Slebus
P P F M
PP
Kuijer
P F M
PF
Kuijer
J H B M
JH
Willems
M H W
MH
Frings-Dresen
J K
JK
Sluiter
D057189:Checklist; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007345:Insurance Claim Review; D009426:Netherlands; D015588:Observer Variation; D009787:Occupational Medicine; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018582:Sick Leave; D013997:Time Factors; D014938:Work Capacity Evaluation