Motivation and return to work among the long-term sicklisted: an action theory perspective.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to enlighten motivation and return to work among the long-term sicklisted.
METHOD: Data are from a mail questionnaire answered by 185 people living in the Stockholm metropolitan area in Sweden. All subjects were on long-term sick leave owing to back or neck symptoms, they were 18-55 years of age and had an employer. A part of the questionnaire was based on an action theory perspective emphasising the respondent's own view of his or her present and future situation. People answered structured questions about what kind of work they wanted, if they thought they could get such work and if they thought they could manage this type of work. All three aspects are of importance in the study of motivation. A follow-up of the employment status of the respondents was made about two years after the questionnaire had been answered. The relationships between their plans and employment status were studied.
RESULTS: The results show that our questions had good predictive validity, i.e. there were clear correlations between the answers and employment status two years later. It was shown that wanting to return to work is connected to one's view of own possibilities. What a person wants is not an isolated opinion, but clearly connected with the other aspects, particularly own competence ("can manage").
CONCLUSION: It is concluded that the action theory approach could be developed into an instrument for "action analysis" that could be used in work with vocational rehabilitation. Such a development is now under way.