Demographic and health-related factors associated with reduced work functioning in people with moderate medically unexpl

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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Open Access

Demographic and health-related factors associated with reduced work functioning in people with moderate medically unexplained physical symptoms: a crosssectional study Mark L. van Tilburg1,2,3* , Paula Elisabeth van Westrienen1,3,4 and Martijn F. Pisters1,3,4

Abstract Background: Medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) are a leading cause of reduced work functioning. It is not known which factors are associated with reduced work functioning in people with moderate MUPS. Insight in these factors can contribute to prevention of reduced work functioning, associated work-related costs and in MUPS becoming chronic. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify which demographic and health-related factors are associated with reduced work functioning, operationalized as impaired work performance and absenteeism, in people with moderate MUPS. Methods: Data of 104 participants from an ongoing study on people with moderate MUPS were used in this crosssectional study. Ten independent variables were measured at baseline to determine their association with reduced work functioning: severity of psychosocial symptoms (four domains, measured with the Four-Dimensional Symptom Questionnaire), physical health (RAND 36-Item Health Survey), moderate or vigorous physical activity (Activ8 activity monitor), age, sex, education level and duration of complaints. Two separate multivariable linear regression analyses were performed with backward stepwise selection, for both impaired work performance and absenteeism. Results: Absenteeism rate rose with 2.5 and 0.6% for every increased point on the Four-Dimensional Symptom Questionnaire for domain ‘depression’ (B = 0.025, SE = 0.009, p = .006) and domain ‘somatization’ (B = 0.006, SE = 0.003, p = .086), respectively. An R2 value of 0.118 was found. Impaired work performance rate rose with 0.2 and 0.5% for every increased point on the Four-Dimensional Symptom Questionnaire for domain ‘distress’ (B = 0.002, SE = 0.001, p = .084) and domain ‘somatization’ (B = 0.005, SE = 0.001, p < .001), respectively. An R2 value of 0.252 was found. (Continued on next page)

* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Department of Rehabilitation, Physiotherapy Science and Sports, UMC Utrecht Brain Center, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands 2 Expertise Center Healthy Urban Living, Research Group Innovation of Human Movement Care, University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, Heidelberglaan 7, 3584 CS Utrecht, the Netherlands Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are incl