Understanding the Unmet Accommodation Needs of People Working with Mental or Cognitive Conditions: The Importance of Gender, Gendered Work, and Employment Factors.
Geneviève Jessiman-Perreault, Monique A M Gignac, Aaron Thompson and 1 others
PMID 37878157WHAT IT FOUND
Women and workers with mental or cognitive conditions reported more unmet workplace flexibility, modification, and health benefit needs before job conditions were considered.
Most differences narrowed after job type and working conditions were included.
Key findings
01In models adjusted for individual factors, participants with a mental or cognitive condition causing disability were more likely than participants without a condition causing disability to report unmet workplace flexibility, work modification, and health benefit needs.
02After controlling for individual factors, work context, and job conditions, differences in unmet accommodation needs between people with and without mental/cognitive conditions were no longer significant.
03After controlling for individual factors, work context, and job conditions, women were more likely than men to report unmet workplace flexibility needs.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study measured associations at one time, so it cannot show that a mental or cognitive condition caused unmet accommodation needs. Respondents living only with a physical disability, self-employed respondents, and people not currently working were excluded, so it does not describe all workers with disabilities. Non-binary respondents were too few to analyse separately, so gender findings apply mainly to women and men. The interaction tests had wide confidence intervals, so the study may not have been large enough to detect combined effects of gender and disability. Accommodation need items were pilot tested and aligned with recent research, but the authors say their validity and reliability need further examination.
Declared interests
Funded by the S. Leonard Syme Research Training Award in Work and Health and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that mental or cognitive conditions alone create unmet accommodation needs. The paper is a survey, and after job conditions and work context were included, disability-related differences in unmet needs were no longer significant.