Abstract
The increase of chronic diseases worldwide impact quality of life, cause economic and medical costs, and make it necessary to look for strategies and solutions that allow people with chronic diseases (PwCDs) to lead an active working life. As part of the CHRODIS Plus Joint European Action project, a systematic review was conducted to identify studies of interventions that support the maintenance of work and return to work (RTW) among workers with chronic illnesses. These interventions should target employees with the following conditions: diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic vascular syndrome, respiratory diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, mental disorders, and neurological disorders. An extensive search was performed in PubMed, EMBASE, and PsycINFO for English language studies. Included in this review were 15 randomized controlled trials (RCT) for adult employees (aged 18+). We found that workplace-oriented and multidisciplinary programs are the most supportive to RTW and reducing the absence due to illness. In addition, cognitive behavioral therapies achieve positive results on RTW and sick leave. Finally, coaching is effective for the self-management of chronic disease and significantly improved perceptions of working capacity and fatigue.
Highlights
MethodsA review protocol was created a priori in which the search strategy, article selection, data extraction, and synthesis have been described
More than one third of the European employable population has a chronic illness and two out of three people reaching retirement age have two chronic diseases [1]
Since this review was done as part of the CHRODIS Plus European Joint Action project, all members of this project agreed on the methodology and decided to search the three main medical databases: PubMed, EMBASE, and PsycINFO
Summary
A review protocol was created a priori in which the search strategy, article selection, data extraction, and synthesis have been described. Since this review was done as part of the CHRODIS Plus European Joint Action project, all members of this project agreed on the methodology and decided to search the three main medical databases: PubMed, EMBASE, and PsycINFO. An extensive search was performed in PubMed until 31 March. 2018, EMBASE until 1 April 2018, and PsycINFO until 2 April 2018. We searched for all English language studies, using terms or synonyms for chronic diseases and RTW (see Box 1). The search terms were linked using Boolean operators “AND” and “OR”. The strategy was formulated in PubMed (MEDLINE) and was adapted for use in the other databases
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