Development and psychometric evaluation of a theory-based questionnaire measuring women's return-to-work beliefs after long-term sick leave for common mental disorders.
Åsa Hedlund, Eva Boman, Marja-Leena Kristofferzon and 1 others
PMID 36806536WHAT IT FOUND
A new 60-item questionnaire measuring return-to-work beliefs in women with mental health disorders shows promise but has reliability gaps.
The intention and attitude scales are solid, but scales for social pressure and personal control are weak. Do not use the full tool clinically yet.
Key findings
01The scales measuring intention and attitude showed good internal consistency, but the scales for subjective norms and perceived behavioural control had low reliability.
02Exploratory factor analysis revealed that women distinguish between beliefs about work life and personal life, rather than viewing return-to-work as a single unified concept.
03Indirect measures of disadvantages and non-supporters were not significantly associated with their corresponding direct scales, suggesting positive beliefs may drive attitudes more than negative ones.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The response rate was low (23.5%), which threatens generalisability. The sample was limited to women in a specific region of Sweden, making international application uncertain. The scales for subjective norms and perceived behavioural control showed poor reliability, meaning these parts of the questionnaire are currently unstable. The study did not include men, so the findings do not apply to male patients. Women with severe mental illness or those on sick leave for more than two years were excluded, so the tool may not work for complex cases.
Declared interests
None to report.
The easy way to misread this
Do not start using this questionnaire to assess your patients. The scales measuring social pressure and personal control failed reliability checks, and the authors state the tool is still in a premature phase requiring further testing.