Exploring the Factors that Influence Workforce Participation for People with Multiple Sclerosis: A Discrete Choice Experiment.
Elizabeth Goodwin, Annie Hawton, Jennifer A Whitty and 1 others
PMID 33502661WHAT IT FOUND
For people with MS, the impact of work on other life aspects and supportive workplace culture were the strongest drivers of job preference.
Physical workplace alterations were less important overall, though their value varied significantly by job type and MS course.
Key findings
01The impact of working on other aspects of life was the most important factor in job choices, followed by having supportive managers and colleagues.
02Physical alterations in the workplace were the least important attributes for the whole sample.
03Preferences varied across three distinct groups, with job type and MS type influencing whether flexibility or physical alterations were more valued.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was skewed towards higher managerial and professional occupations, which may limit generalizability to manual or routine workers. A forced-choice design was used, meaning respondents could not reject both job options, which may have inflated willingness-to-pay estimates. The study reports stated preferences, not actual employment outcomes or behaviors. Interactions between attributes other than Impact were not fully tested due to resource constraints.
Declared interests
The paper does not list specific funding sources or conflicts of interest in the provided text, but notes it is a Research Support Non-U.S. Gov't article.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the willingness-to-pay figures as exact monetary values patients would accept. These are relative measures derived from a forced-choice model where patients could not decline both jobs, and they primarily indicate the ranking of importance between attributes rather than absolute financial thresholds.