ArticleJournal of occupational rehabilitation2012
Injured workers' construction of expectations of return to work with sub-acute back pain: the role of perceived uncertainty.
Article in Journal of occupational rehabilitation, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 2 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
22 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Expectations for Return to Work Predict Return to Work in Workers with Low Back Pain: An Individual Participant Data (IPD) Meta-Analysis.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2022Pooled it
- Measures of patients' expectations about recovery: a systematic review.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2015Pooled it
- Trial
- How do low back pain patients conceptualize their expectations regarding treatment? Content analysis of interviews.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2013Trial
- Conceptualizing Stigma in the Injured Worker Literature: A Scoping Review.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Understanding sustainable return to work during gender transition, a (mixed method) diary-based single-case study of a transgender woman: Spiegel im spiegel.International journal of transgender health · 2026Article
- Exploration of How Uncertainty Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, and Hope Are Linked and Influenced in People with Chronic Low Back Pain: A Worked Example of a Social Constructivist Meta-Ethnography Study.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Readiness for return to work and its influencing factors among head and neck cancer patients: a cross-sectional study.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2024Article
- Breast Cancer Survivors' Experiences of Managers' Actions During the Return to Work Process: A Scoping Review of Qualitative Studies.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2023Article
- Return to work after medical rehabilitation in Germany: influence of individual factors and regional labour market based on administrative data.Journal for labour market research · 2023Article
- The cognitive adaptability and resiliency employment screener (CARES): tool development and testing.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Disrupted everyday life in the trajectory of low back pain: A longitudinal qualitative study of the cross-sectorial pathways of individuals with low back pain over time.International journal of nursing studies advances · 2021Article
- Patient Perspectives on Key Outcomes for Vocational Rehabilitation Interventions Following Traumatic Injury.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Does work have to be so painful? A review of the literature examining the effects of fibromyalgia on the working experience from the patient perspective.Canadian journal of pain = Revue canadienne de la douleur · 2020Review
- Transcultural validation of the return-to-work self-efficacy scale in Korean patients with work-related injuries.BMC public health · 2020Article
- Differences Over Time in the Prognostic Effect of Return to Work Self-Efficacy on a Sustained Return to Work.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2019Article
- Returning to work following low back pain: towards a model of individual psychosocial factors.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2015Article
- Article
- A prospective study of the association between the readiness for return to work scale and future work participation in Norway.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2014Article
- Vocational rehabilitation program evaluation: comparison group challenges and the role of unmeasured return-to-work expectations.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionLittle is known about the formation of expectations of return to work (RTW) from the perspective of injured workers with back injuries. This modified grounded theory study uses a biopsychosocial approach that considers the workers' complex social circumstances, to unpack the multidimensional construct of expectations of RTW from the injured worker's perspective.
methodInitial semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 individuals with sub-acute back pain, who were off work between 3 and 6 months. Follow-up interviews were conducted with 7 participants for the purposes of member checking. The interview data was coded, compared and analyzed over the course of data collection, until saturation was reached.
resultsData analysis revealed that expectations of return-to-work are constructed based on perceived uncertainty which subsumes five inter-related categories (1) perceived lack of control over the return-to-work process, (2) perceived lack of recognition by others of the impact of the injury, (3) perceived inability to perform the pre-injury job, (4) fear of re-injury, and (5) perceived need for workplace accommodations. Expectations, once formed, were influenced by the worker's experience of coping with perceived uncertainty.
conclusionPerceived uncertainty plays a key role in injured workers' formation of expectations of return-to-work. Implications are discussed regarding how this perceived uncertainty plays a role in the development of (re)injury prevention and rehabilitation programs. The importance of further research on perceived uncertainty is presented, along with potential future research considerations.
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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.