MANAGE AT WORK: Addressing the Challenge of Chronic Physical Health Conditions in the Workplace

Study Summary

The specific aim of the study is to evaluate the health benefits of a series of group workshops designed for workers with chronic physical health conditions. The facilitated workshops apply principles of pain and illness self-management to help workers deal with health-related challenges while at work. The workshops address issues of pain management, physical job demands, pacing of work, communication, problem solving, and coping. Half of the participants in the study will be randomly assigned to attend workshop sessions (10 hours total), and all study participants will be followed for one year. The primary hypothesis is that workers who participate in these workshops will show improvements in work engagement and reductions in work limitation in the subsequent 12 months.

Primary Outcome

The Work Limitations Questionnaire (WLQ)(Lerner et al., 2003) is a 25-item self-report questionnaire that assesses the degree to which working individuals are experiencing limitations on-the-job due to their health problems and health-related productivity loss. The WLQ asks respondents to rate their level of difficulty or ability to perform specific job demands. Items are grouped into 4 scales: (1) time management; (2) physical demands; (3) mental-interpersonal demands; and (4) output demands.

Conditions Studied

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL Self-management group workshops

Study Locations (4)