ArticleJournal of occupational rehabilitation2014
Exploring the diversity of conceptualizations of work (dis)ability: a scoping review of published definitions.
Article in Journal of occupational rehabilitation, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 121 citations in OpenAlex.
- Work-Related Psychosocial Risk and Protective Factors Influencing Workplace Sickness Absence: A Systematic Literature Review.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2026Pooled it
- A Systematic Review and Evaluation of the Tools Measuring Work-Related Psychosocial Factors in Prospective Research on Sickness Absence of Health Care Workers.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Functional Impairments and Work-Related Outcomes in Breast Cancer Survivors: A Systematic Review.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2018Pooled it
- Prevention of sickness absence through early identification and rehabilitation of at-risk patients with musculoskeletal disorders (PREVSAM): 12-month follow-up of a randomised controlled trial.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2026Trial
- Navigating work and life- a qualitative exploration of managers' and employees' views of return-to-work after sick leave due to common mental disorders.BMC public health · 2024Trial
- Trial
- 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
- Work Ability and Work Participation Statuses of the Working-Age Population in Finland: A Register-Based Clustering Study.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Managing Complexity: Manager-Stakeholder Communication, Relational Dynamics, and the Dual Nature of RTW Communication.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Work ability literacy among managers in the health and social care sector - a qualitative study.International journal of public health · 2026Article
- 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
- 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
- Individual Work Attitudes and Work Ability.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2025Article
- Developing a Work Accommodation Operating Model for Workplaces and Work Ability Support Services.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Work Disability and Musculoskeletal Disorders Among Teleworkers: A Scoping Review.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2025Article
- Referring psychiatric patients to occupational health services for earlier return to work - a qualitative implementation study of barriers and facilitators.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Emotional and Work-Related Factors in the Self-Assessment of Work Ability among Italian Healthcare Workers.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Exploring the working conditions of disabled employees: a scoping review.Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England) · 2024Article
- Social and health care top managers' perceptions and aims of strategic work ability management in the midst of change.Work (Reading, Mass.) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
purposeResearchers are confronted to numerous definitions of work ability/disability, influenced by their context of emergence, discipline, purpose, underlying paradigm and relationship to time. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the concept through a systematic scoping review and the development of an integrative concept map of work (dis)ability. The research questions are: How has work (dis)ability been conceptualized from the perspectives of research, practice, policy and industry in the published scientific literature? How has the conceptualization of work (dis)ability evolved over time?
methodsA search strategy was designed with a library scientist to retrieve scientific publications containing explicit definition(s) of work (dis)ability in leading-edge databases. The screening and the extraction of the definitions were achieved by duplicate assessment. The definitions were subject to a comparative analysis based on the grounded theory approach.
resultsIn total, 423 abstracts were retrieved from the bibliographic databases. After removing duplicates, 280 unique records were screened for inclusion. A final set of 115 publications containing unique original conceptual definitions served as basis for analysis.
conclusionsThe scientific literature does not reflect a shared, integrated vision of the exact nature and dimensions of work (dis)ability. However, except for a few definitions, there seems to be a consensus that work (dis)ability is a relational concept resulting from the interaction of multiple dimensions that influence each other through different ecological levels. The conceptualization of work (dis)ability also seems to have become more dynamic over time. The way work (dis)ability is defined has important implications for research, compensation and rehabilitation.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.