Work And Vocational advicE Study - Effectiveness of Adding a Brief Vocational Support Intervention to Usual Primary Care
- Conditions
- Other Physical Health ConditionMental Health DisorderAbsenceMusculoskeletal PainMental Health Issue
- Interventions
- Behavioral: Vocational Support
- Registration Number
- NCT04543097
- Lead Sponsor
- Keele University
- Brief Summary
Maintaining the population's fitness for work is a priority for the UK Government. People with poor health often struggle at work and take sick leave. Work brings financial, social and health benefits. Few employees receive support to manage their health at work, known as vocational advice, so when their health affects work they visit their general practitioner (GP). The investigators have recently shown the benefits of providing vocational advice for adults consulting in primary care with musculoskeletal pain.
The WAVE study research question is: in patients consulting in general practice who receive a fit note for time off work, does a brief vocational advice intervention lead to fewer days lost from work than usual primary care, and is it cost-effective?
WAVE includes a feasibility phase to adapt a vocational advice intervention for a broader group of patients and test it in a small sample of patients; followed by a pragmatic, multi-centre, two-arm, parallel-group randomised (1:1) trial with internal pilot phase, mixed methods process evaluation and health economic analysis.
Patients will be randomised to either (i) vocational advice intervention plus usual care, or (ii) usual care alone. The vocational advice intervention is designed as a stepped care model based on the principles of case management and delivered by trained Vocational Support Workers (VSWs).
The investigators will also interview patients, General Practitioners (GPs), VSWs and employers to understand their views about the intervention and return to work.
Participants in the trial will be followed-up over 6 months with fortnightly text messages and postal questionnaires at 6 weeks and 6 months.
- Detailed Description
Not available
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- COMPLETED
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 130
- Adults aged 18 years and over
- currently in paid employment (full or part time)
- current absence from work of at least two consecutive calendar weeks but not more than six continuous months
- received a fit note
- access to a mobile phone that can receive and respond to SMS text messages
- able to read and write English
- able to give full informed consent
- willing to participate.
- Long-term work absence defined as over six continuous months
- pregnancy or on maternity leave
- patients presenting with signs or symptoms indicative of serious illness requiring urgent medical attention ('red' flags)
- severe mental health problems (e.g. severe depression with risk of self-harm, exacerbation of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, cognitive impairment or lack of capacity)
- high vulnerability (e.g. palliative stages of illness, recent bereavement, dementia).
Study & Design
- Study Type
- INTERVENTIONAL
- Study Design
- PARALLEL
- Arm && Interventions
Group Intervention Description Usual care plus vocational support Vocational Support Vocational support following a stepped care model based on the principles of case management in addition to usual primary care.
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Number of days absent from work 6 months Self reported work absence calculated as the number of days off work over the previous 6 months (since randomisation).
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Return to work 6 months or until sustained return to work (return to any work for 4 consecutive weeks) RTW - Self reported number of days until return to work over 6 months, or until a sustained return to work is achieved (defined as return to any work for 4 consecutive weeks).
Work interference 6 months Work Productivity Activity Impairment (WPAI) Questionnaire to measure impairments to work and activities in the past seven days. The WPAI provides four sets of scores; absenteeism, presenteeism, work productivity loss and activity impairment. Scores are multiplied by 100 to express percentages with higher numbers indicating greater impairment and less productivity i.e. worse outcomes.
Work performance 6 months Single Item Productivity Questionnaire (SIPQ) measured using a Visual Analogue Scale with scores ranging from 0 (health has not impacted on work performance at all) to 10 (health is so bad participant has been unable to do their job) a higher score indicates a worse outcome. The scores will be reported as a percentage perceived loss in productivity.
Trial Locations
- Locations (1)
Keele University
🇬🇧Newcastle Under Lyme, United Kingdom