title: Work and Health Questionnaire (WHQ): A Screening Tool for Identifying Injured Workers at Risk for a Complicated Rehabilitation.
abstract: Purpose Unintentional injuries occur frequently and many of the accident survivors suffer from temporary or permanent disabilities. Although most accident victims recover quickly, a significant fraction of them shows a complicated recovery process and accounts for the majority of disability costs. Thus, early identification of vulnerable persons may be beneficial for compensation schemes, government bodies, as well as for the worker themselves. Here we present the Work and Health Questionnaire (WHQ), a screening tool that is already implemented in the case management process of the Swiss Accident Insurance Fund (Suva). Moreover, we demonstrate its prognostic value for identifying workers at risk of a complicated recovery process. Methods A total of 1963 injured workers answered the WHQ within the first 3 months after their accident. All of them had minor to moderate accidental injuries; severely injured workers were excluded from the analyses. The anonymized individual-level data were extracted from insurance databases. We examined construct validity by factorial analyses, and prognostic validity by hierarchical multiple regression analyses on days of work disability. Further, we evaluated well-being and job satisfaction 18 months post-injury in a subsample of 192 injured workers (9.8 %) Results Factor analyses supported five underlying factors (Job Design, Work Support, Job Strain, Somatic Condition/Pain, and Anxiety/Worries). These subscales were moderately correlated, thus indicating that different subscales measured different aspects of work and health-related risk factors of injured workers. Item analysis and reliability analysis showed accurate psychometric properties. Each subscale was predictive at least for one of the evaluated outcomes 18 months post-injury. Conclusion The WHQ shows good psychometric qualities with high clinical utility to identify injured persons with multiple psychosocial risk factors. Thus, the questionnaire appears to be suitable for exploring different rehabilitation needs among minor to moderate injured workers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, 3012, Bern, Switzerland. sandra.abegglen@psy.unibe.ch.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8196-8165
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abegglen
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Hoffmann-Richter
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Schade
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Fabrikstrasse 8, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Hans-Jörg
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Znoj
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D060051:Occupational Injuries / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D018582:Sick Leave / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014942:Workers' Compensation / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: Factor analysis; Injury; Rehabilitation; Return to work (RTW); Screening