Prevalence and Characteristics of Work Anxiety in Medical Rehabilitation Patients: A Cross-Sectional Observation Study.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate frequency, type, and characteristics of work anxieties in patients with somatic illness.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional observation study.

SETTING

Neurology, orthopedic, and cardiology rehabilitation clinics.

PARTICIPANTS

Patients (N=1610; age, 18-65y) with work anxieties.

INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Patients who scored high on at least 2 of 9 items in the work-anxiety screening questionnaire and who reported impairment were investigated with a differential diagnostic interview on work anxieties and with the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview on non-work-related common mental disorders. Patients also filled out a self-rating questionnaire on their subjective symptom load and sociodemographic data.

RESULTS

Approximately 20% to 27% of the investigated inpatients in somatic rehabilitation (altogether n=393) received a work-anxiety diagnosis. Patients with orthopedic illness report highest work anxiety and have previous longest sick leave (20.6wk in the past 12mo). Patients with orthopedic illness suffer from work-related adjustment disorder with anxiety, social anxieties, and workplace phobias, whereas patients with cardiac illness are more often affected by hypochondriac anxieties. Anxieties of insufficiency and worrying occur equally in all indications.

CONCLUSIONS

About a quarter of patients in somatic rehabilitation are in need of additional diagnostic attention owing to work anxieties. Differential diagnostic of work anxiety is needed for initiating adequate therapeutic action. Somatic rehabilitation physicians should be aware of work anxieties in their patients, especially in patients with orthopedic illness with previous long-term sick leave.