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

Liberty Mutual

Status: Completed

Conditions: Chronic Physical Health Conditions

Treatments: Behavioral: Self-management group workshops

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Industry

Identifiers

NCT01978392

LMRIS Project 11-08 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

LMRIS 11-08

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Full description

One significant trend in the US workforce is the advancing median age of workers and the growing prevalence of chronic medical conditions that contribute to workplace pain, fatigue, task limitations, and reduced productivity. The proposed multi-site study is a randomized, controlled trial of a multi-session group intervention program targeting workers with chronic health concerns (N = 300). The primary outcome measures will be self-report measures of work limitations and work engagement measured at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months follow-up. Secondary outcomes will include turnover intention, sickness absence, job satisfaction, and healthcare utilization. Process variables and covariates will include assessment of self-efficacy, work-related fatigue, emotional distress, work characteristics, general health status, and basic demographic variables. The study should provide an assessment of whether principles of symptom self-management can be successfully applied to workplace problems and delivered in a group workshop format to reduce the disabling effects of chronic medical conditions.

Enrollment: 122 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

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.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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122 participants in 2 patient groups

Self-management group workshops

Experimental group

Description:

Self-management group workshops: Participants randomized to the intervention arm will be asked to participate in group workshop sessions (10 hours total) led by a specially trained facilitator and provided over a span of approximately 2-3 months.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Self-management group workshops

No treament (wait-list control)

No Intervention group

Description:

Wait-list control: Participants randomized to the control arm will receive no intervention during the one-year period of data collection, but they will be invited to attend a full-day Saturday workshop after all study data collection is complete). The intent of the full-day workshop will be to provide the same self-management information as in the intervention arm, but on a delayed basis and in a more condensed format.