TY - JOUR A1 - Muschalla, Beate T1 - Is it a Case of "Work-Anxiety" When Patients Report Bad Workplace Characteristics and Low Work Ability? JF - Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation N2 - Aims Work-anxiety may produce overly negative views of the workplace that impair provider efforts to assess work ability from patient self-report. This study explores the empirical relationships between patient-reported workplace characteristics, work-anxiety, and subjective and objective work ability measures. Methods 125 patients in medical rehabilitation before vocational reintegration were interviewed concerning their vocational situation, and filled in a questionnaire on work-anxiety, subjective mental work ability and perceived workplace characteristics. Treating physicians gave independent socio-medical judgments concerning the patients’ work ability and impairment, and need for supportive means for vocational reintegration. Results Patients with high work-anxiety reported more negative workplace characteristics. Low judgments of work ability were correlated with problematic workplace characteristics. When controlled for work-anxiety, subjective work ability remained related only with social workplace characteristics and with work achievement demands, but independent from situational or task characteristics. Sick leave duration and physicians’ judgment of work ability were not significantly related to patient-reported workplace characteristics. Conclusions In socio-medical work ability assessments, patients with high work-anxiety may over-report negative workplace characteristics that can confound provider estimates of work ability. Assessing work-anxiety may be important to assess readiness for returning to work and initiating work-directed treatments. KW - Work anxiety KW - Work ability KW - Workplace KW - Sick leave KW - Work characteristics Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-016-9637-2 SN - 1053-0487 SN - 1573-3688 VL - 27 SP - 106 EP - 114 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Muschalla, Beate A1 - Jöbges, Michael T1 - Prevalence and Characteristics of Work Anxiety in Medical Rehabilitation Patients BT - a cross-sectional observation study JF - Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation N2 - Objective: To investigate frequency, type, and characteristics of work anxieties in patients with somatic illness. Design: Cross-sectional observation study. Setting: Neurology, orthopedic, and cardiology rehabilitation clinics. Participants: Patients (N=4610; age, 18-65y) with work anxieties. Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Patients who scored high on at least 2 of 9 items in the work-anxiety screening questionnaire and who reported impairment were investigated with a differential diagnostic interview on work anxieties and with the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview on non work-related common mental disorders. Patients also filled out a self-rating questionnaire on their subjective symptom load and sociodemographic data. Results: Approximately 20% to 27% of the investigated inpatients in somatic rehabilitation (altogether n=393) received a work-anxiety diagnosis. Patients with orthopedic illness report highest work anxiety and have previous longest sick leave (20.6wk in the past 12mo). Patients with orthopedic illness suffer from work-related adjustment disorder with anxiety, social anxieties, and workplace phobias, whereas patients with cardiac illness are more often affected by hypochondriac anxieties. Anxieties of insufficiency and worrying occur equally in all indications. Conclusions: About a quarter of patients in somatic rehabilitation are in need of additional diagnostic attention owing to work anxieties. Differential diagnostic of work anxiety is needed for initiating adequate therapeutic action. Somatic rehabilitation physicians should be aware of work anxieties in their patients, especially in patients with orthopedic illness with previous long-term sick leave. (c) 2017 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine KW - Anxiety KW - Mental health KW - Rehabilitation KW - Sick leave KW - Workplace Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2017.06.017 SN - 0003-9993 SN - 1532-821X VL - 99 IS - 1 SP - 57 EP - 64 PB - Elsevier CY - Philadelphia ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Muschalla, Beate T1 - Negative work perception not changed in a short work-anxiety-coping group therapy intervention JF - International journal of occupational and environmental health N2 - Background: Work anxiety is often associated with long-term sick leave and requires early intervention. Work anxieties are associated with negative work perception. Therefore, one aim in early intervention is a cognitive reframing of dysfunctional perceptions of workplace characteristics. Methods: A psychotherapeutic specialist conducted two group programs of four sessions each. One hundred twenty-three rehabilitation in-patients with work anxieties were randomly assigned either to a work anxiety-coping group or to a recreational group. The Short Questionnaire for Work Analysis (KFZA) was administered before and after the group treatment to measure perceptions of working conditions. Results: Participants from the work anxiety-coping group did not see their work in a significantly more positive light at the end of the intervention compared to participants from the recreational group. Conclusions: A short work anxiety-coping group did not initiate a consistent positive re-appraisal of work. Employers and occupational physicians should not expect positive changes of work perception when an employee returns from short medical rehabilitation including work-directed treatment. Additional support from the workplace must be considered, e.g. employer-physician-employee conversation preceding return to work, or (temporary) work adjustment. KW - Workplace KW - Mental health KW - Anxiety KW - Sick leave KW - Work-oriented interventions KW - Work perception KW - Return to work KW - Mental disorders Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/10773525.2016.1238663 SN - 1077-3525 SN - 2049-3967 VL - 22 SP - 321 EP - 324 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Muschalla, Beate T1 - Different work capacity impairments in patients with different work-anxieties JF - International archives of occupational and environmental health N2 - Purpose Persons with work-anxieties are especially endangered for work capacity impairment and sick leave. Work capacity impairment is not directly due to symptoms but due to illness-related capacity disorders. Work capacity impairments can be described on different dimensions (e.g., social interaction, decision making and judgment, endurance, mobility). Understanding the type of work capacity impairment is important for reintegration interventions. This is the first study to investigate work capacity impairment in risk patients with different work-anxieties. Results Patients with different work-anxieties were impaired in different capacity dimensions: Work-related social anxiety went along with clinically relevant impairment in capacity of assertiveness (M = 2.40), anxiety of insufficiency went along with impaired capacity of endurance (M = 2.20), and work-related generalized worrying was accompanied by impairment in the capacity for decision making (M = 1.82). Specific capacity impairment dimensions were related to sick leave duration, while a global work ability prognosis was not. Conclusions The capacity approach is useful to describe work impairment more precisely and beyond symptoms. On this basis, reintegration-focusing interventions such as capacity training (e.g., social interaction training) or work adjustment (e.g., reducing exposure with interactional work tasks) can be initiated. KW - Work ability KW - Work-anxiety KW - Sick leave KW - Impairment KW - Mental disorders KW - ICF Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-015-1099-x SN - 0340-0131 SN - 1432-1246 VL - 89 SP - 609 EP - 619 PB - Springer CY - New York ER -