TY - JOUR
T1 - Does self-perceived health correlate with physician-assessed functional limitations in medical work disability assessments?
AU - Weerdesteijn, Kristel H. N.
AU - Schaafsma, Frederieke G.
AU - Louwerse, Ilse
AU - Huysmans, Maaike A.
AU - van der Beek, Allard J.
AU - Anema, Johannes R.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Objective: Our purpose was to obtain information about the correlation between workers' self-perceived health and physician-assessed functional limitations. We also studied whether this correlation differed between workers with subjective health complaints that cannot (SHC) and those that can be explained (non-SHC) by a well-defined medical disease. Methods: Baseline data of 2040 participants from a prospective cohort study were used for this study. These participants answered a questionnaire on their self-perceived health and received a medical work disability assessment during which physicians reported functional limitations. Pearson correlation analyses were used to calculate correlations between 4 functional limitation factors and 11 self-perceived health factors. For correlations with coefficients ≥0.30, linear regression analyses were performed to assess possible differences between participants with SHC (n = 363) and those with non-SHC (n = 1677). Results: We found correlations ≥0.30 between two functional limitation factors and six self-perceived health factors for all participants. SHC participants showed lower correlations than the non-SHC participants between the physical functional limitation and the SF-36 self-perceived physical health factors (−0.49, 95% CI −0.56 to −0.41 vs. -0.60, 95% CI -0.62 to −0.57) and between the mental functional limitation and the SF-36 self-perceived mental health factors (−0.30, 95% CI -0.39 to −0.20 vs. -0.40, 95% CI -0.44 to −0.36). Conclusion: Self-perceived health showed overall low to moderate correlations with physician-assessed functional limitations. Some of these correlations were lower for workers with SHC than for those with non-SHC. This may indicate that physicians rely slightly more on well-defined medical complaints within medical work disability assessments.
AB - Objective: Our purpose was to obtain information about the correlation between workers' self-perceived health and physician-assessed functional limitations. We also studied whether this correlation differed between workers with subjective health complaints that cannot (SHC) and those that can be explained (non-SHC) by a well-defined medical disease. Methods: Baseline data of 2040 participants from a prospective cohort study were used for this study. These participants answered a questionnaire on their self-perceived health and received a medical work disability assessment during which physicians reported functional limitations. Pearson correlation analyses were used to calculate correlations between 4 functional limitation factors and 11 self-perceived health factors. For correlations with coefficients ≥0.30, linear regression analyses were performed to assess possible differences between participants with SHC (n = 363) and those with non-SHC (n = 1677). Results: We found correlations ≥0.30 between two functional limitation factors and six self-perceived health factors for all participants. SHC participants showed lower correlations than the non-SHC participants between the physical functional limitation and the SF-36 self-perceived physical health factors (−0.49, 95% CI −0.56 to −0.41 vs. -0.60, 95% CI -0.62 to −0.57) and between the mental functional limitation and the SF-36 self-perceived mental health factors (−0.30, 95% CI -0.39 to −0.20 vs. -0.40, 95% CI -0.44 to −0.36). Conclusion: Self-perceived health showed overall low to moderate correlations with physician-assessed functional limitations. Some of these correlations were lower for workers with SHC than for those with non-SHC. This may indicate that physicians rely slightly more on well-defined medical complaints within medical work disability assessments.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85070635822&origin=inward
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31421326
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2019.109792
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2019.109792
M3 - Article
C2 - 31421326
SN - 0022-3999
VL - 125
JO - Journal of psychosomatic research
JF - Journal of psychosomatic research
M1 - 109792
ER -