ArticleJournal of occupational rehabilitation2011
The concept of work ability.
Article in Journal of occupational rehabilitation, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 94 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
94 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effectiveness of work ability interventions on productivity: a systematic review.Journal of occupational health · 2025Pooled it
- A general framework for selecting work participation outcomes in intervention studies among persons with health problems: a concept paper.BMC public health · 2022Pooled it
- The Impact of Thyroid Diseases on the Working Life of Patients: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Workplace Interventions for Improving Absenteeism, Productivity, and Work Ability of Employees: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Pooled it
- The contribution from psychological, social, and organizational work factors to risk of disability retirement: a systematic review with meta-analyses.BMC public health · 2017Pooled it
- Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of iCanWork: Theory-Guided Return-to-Work Intervention for Individuals Touched by Cancer.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2025Trial
- Outcomes and process evaluation of a cluster-randomised participatory organisational intervention among German healthcare workers.BMC health services research · 2023Trial
- Efficacy of an exercise intervention for employees with work-related fatigue: study protocol of a two-arm randomized controlled trial.BMC public health · 2015Trial
- Impact of the nursing work environment on patient satisfaction with care: A cluster-randomised organisational intervention.International journal of nursing studies advances · 2026Article
- Facilitators and barriers for return to work among patients with post-COVID-19 condition: a qualitative interview study.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Article
- Experiences of Rehabilitation Professionals in Guiding Rehabilitation for People with Persistent Spinal Pain Syndrome Type 2: A Qualitative Study.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Associations between work ability and work participation after rehabilitation: a longitudinal multicentre cohort study.EULAR rheumatology open · 2026Article
- Favorable changes in health- and work-related factors and subsequent work ability in midlife and older social and health care employees.International archives of occupational and environmental health · 2026Article
- Medico-social predictors of low work ability: a cross-sectional study of 2104 workers in southern France.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Self-rated work ability predicts return to work after occupational rehabilitation.Frontiers in rehabilitation sciences · 2026Article
- Work Ability and Psychological Well-being of Indian Information Technology Employees: Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction and Moderating Role of Perceived Stress.Annals of neurosciences · 2025Article
- Assessment of Work Ability in People with Musculoskeletal Disorders in Primary Health Care: A Scoping Review of Self-Reported Tools.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Usability and Usefulness of Occupational Health Care Patient Portals: Patient-Based Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR human factors · 2025Article
- Work Ability Index and its Correlates among Police Officers in a District of South Kerala.Indian journal of community medicine : official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine · 2025Article
- Cooperation in Return-to-work Interventions for Common Mental Disorders: An Ideal Theory Analysis of Actors, Goals, and Ethical Obstacles.Health care analysis : HCA : journal of health philosophy and policy · 2025Article
34 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThe concept of "work ability" is central for many sciences, especially for those related to working life and to rehabilitation. It is one of the important concepts in legislation regulating sickness insurance. How the concept is defined therefore has important normative implications. The concept is, however, often not sufficiently well defined. AIM AND METHOD The objective of this paper is to clarify, through conceptual analysis, what the concept can and should mean, and to propose a useful definition for scientific and practical work. RESULTS Several of the defining characteristics found in the literature are critically scrutinized and discussed, namely health, basic standard competence, occupational competence, occupational virtues, and motivation. These characteristics are related to the work tasks and the work environment. One conclusion is that we need two definitions of work ability, one for specific jobs that require special training or education, and one for jobs that most people can manage given a short period of practice. Having work ability, in the first sense, means having the occupational competence, the health required for the competence, and the occupational virtues that are required for managing the work tasks, assuming that the tasks are reasonable and that the work environment is acceptable. In the second sense, having work ability is having the health, the basic standard competence and the relevant occupational virtues required for managing some kind of job, assuming that the work tasks are reasonable and that the work environment is acceptable. CONCLUSION These definitions give us tools for understanding and discussing the complex, holistic and dynamic aspects of work ability, and they can lay the foundations for the creation of instruments for evaluating work ability, as well as help formulate strategies for rehabilitation.
Indexed as
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.