title: What positive encounters with healthcare and social insurance staff promotes ability to return to work of long-term sickness absentees?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous studies suggest that positive encounters with healthcare and social insurance staff may be important in promoting return to work among long-term sickness absentees. This study aimed to identify more specifically what positive encounters are important for promoting ability to return to work.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire about different types of encounters was sent to 10,042 people in Sweden on sick leave for 6-8 months (58% responded). For each positive encounter, we estimated the marginal probability difference (PD) of return to work, adjusting for age, sex, education, sick-leave diagnosis, and the sum score of all other encounters. Adjusting for the other encounters is important since of the observed variables these were the strongest confounders.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The positive encounters with both healthcare and social insurance staff significantly associated with promoting ability to return to work after adjusting for the other positive encounters were "Believed in my work capacity" PD=16.9 (95% CI: 12.0, 21.9) and 12.0 (6.3, 17.7), respectively; "Supported my suggestions for solutions": 9.5 (3.1, 15.9) and 11.6 (5.7, 17.4); "Was supportive and encouraging": 10.1 (3.6, 16.7) and 7.3 (1.7, 12.8). Additionally, the encounter with healthcare staff most strongly associated with promoting return to work was "Let me take responsibility" 14.8 (7.2, 22.3); and with social security staff: "Showed that she/he liked me" 10.4 (5.4, 15.4).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Healthcare and social security staff being supportive, encouraging, and believing in the sickness absentee's work capacity may be very important for increasing the probability for long-term sickness absentees' ability to return to work.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Medicine (IMM), Unit of Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden daniel.olsson@ki.se.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Olsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience (CNS), Division of Insurance Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Alexanderson
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Medicine (IMM), Unit of Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bottai
mesh_terms: D000041:Absenteeism; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D062707:Return to Work / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018582:Sick Leave / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012943:Social Security; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Return to work; Sweden; encounter; health personnel; sick leave; social security