Chronic Physical Health Conditions Clinical Trial
Official title:
MANAGE AT WORK: Evaluation of a Group-based Self-management Program to Address Workplace Discomfort and Fatigue Associated With Chronic Physical Health Conditions
| Verified date | June 2017 |
| Source | Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety |
| Contact | n/a |
| Is FDA regulated | No |
| Health authority | |
| Study type | Interventional |
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.
| Status | Completed |
| Enrollment | 122 |
| Est. completion date | May 31, 2017 |
| Est. primary completion date | May 31, 2017 |
| Accepts healthy volunteers | No |
| Gender | All |
| Age group | 18 Years and older |
| Eligibility |
Inclusion Criteria: - Workers with at least one chronic physical condition (> 6 months). - Working full time (at least 20 hours per week). - Able to read and speak in English language. Exclusion Criteria: - Impending retirement or major career change (next 12 months). - Not available to attend group workshops after working hours. |
| Country | Name | City | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center | Hanover | New Hampshire |
| United States | Employer #4 (Confidential) | Hanover | New Hampshire |
| United States | Employer #2 (confidential) | Providence | Rhode Island |
| United States | Employer #3 (confidential) | Worcester | Massachusetts |
| Lead Sponsor | Collaborator |
|---|---|
| Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety |
United States,
Shaw WS, Tveito TH, Boot CR. Introduction to the special section: sustainability of work with chronic health conditions. J Occup Rehabil. 2013 Jun;23(2):157-61. doi: 10.1007/s10926-013-9448-7. — View Citation
Shaw WS, Tveito TH, Geehern-Lavoie M, Huang YH, Nicholas MK, Reme SE, Wagner G, Pransky G. Adapting principles of chronic pain self-management to the workplace. Disabil Rehabil. 2012;34(8):694-703. doi: 10.3109/09638288.2011.615372. Epub 2011 Oct 17. — View Citation
Tveito TH, Shaw WS, Huang YH, Nicholas M, Wagner G. Managing pain in the workplace: a focus group study of challenges, strategies and what matters most to workers with low back pain. Disabil Rehabil. 2010;32(24):2035-45. doi: 10.3109/09638281003797398. Epub 2010 Sep 23. — View Citation
| Type | Measure | Description | Time frame | Safety issue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary | Work limitations | 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. | One year | |
| Primary | Work engagement | The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) (Demourati et al., 2001) is a 17-item self-report questionnaire that was designed to measure the degree to which employees have a sense of energetic and effective connection with their work activities (energy involvement) and see themselves as able to deal with the demands of their job (professional efficacy). Respondents rate their level of agreement with stated feelings about work on a 7-point likert scale from "never" to "always". Work engagement has been defined as a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption. | One year | |
| Secondary | Work fatigue | The Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery Scale (OFER) (Winwood et al., 2005) is a 20-item self-report questionnaire that assesses the degree to which job activities produce acute fatigue, deplete available energy, and reduce the ability to engage in pleasurable activities outside of work. Respondents rate their level of agreement on a 7-point likert scale from "completely disagree" to "completely agree". | One year | |
| Secondary | Turnover intention | A 4-item scale developed by Kelloway and colleagues (1999) will be used to assess turnover intentions. The four questions are: "I am thinking about leaving this organization", "I am planning to look for a new job", "I intend to ask people about new job opportunities", and "I don't plan to be in this organization much longer". Each item is rated on a 5-point likert scale from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree". | One year | |
| Secondary | Job satisfaction | A 2-item scale developed from prior work by the researchers will be used to assess job satisfaction. The two questions are: "I like working for this company and expect to be here for another year or more" and "I would recommend this company to others". | One year | |
| Secondary | Self-efficacy | A unique self-efficacy measure was developed for the project to be closely aligned with the content of the workshop program. Ten items were adapted from the Pain Self-efficacy Questionnaire (Nicholas, 2007) and ten items were taken from the Return-to-work Self Efficacy (RTWSE-19) scale (Shaw et al., 2011). The goal of the new measure is to assess worker confidence with respect to symptom management, job modification, communication, emotional coping, and obtaining needed support and assistance. | One year | |
| Secondary | General health status | The Standard Form-36 (SF-36) (Ware et al., 1992) will be used to assess general health status. This is the most well-validated and frequently used measure of generic health status in health research. The SF-36 provides a single metric of health function regardless of diagnostic categories or illness classifications. | One year | |
| Secondary | Sickness absence | Participants will be asked to recall the number of days in the past 6 months that they were absent from work because of their health. Self-report has been shown to be a viable and reasonably accurate method for assessing sickness absence days in studies of employee health (Short et al., 2009). | One year | |
| Secondary | Healthcare utilization | Participants will be asked to recall the number and type of health care visits over the past 6 months using a standardized set of reporting options and prompts. Self-report has been shown to be a viable and reasonably accurate method for assessing health care utilization rates in studies of employee health (Short et al., 2009) and among individuals with chronic medical conditions (Lubeck & Hubert, 2005). | One year |