Work It Study Clinical Trial Findings Accepted to Arthritis Care & Research Journal
We are pleased to announce that a manuscript describing results from ENACT’s work retention study, Efficacy of a Modified Vocational Rehabilitation Intervention for Work Disability (the “Work It” study), was recently accepted for publication in the journal Arthritis Care & Research.
The Work It Study evaluated whether a job barrier identification and solution generation process delivered by trained occupational and physical therapists minimized work disability among at-risk people with rheumatic and musculoskeletal conditions. Epidemiological research suggests that approximately 33% of people with chronic rheumatological and musculoskeletal conditions are unemployed within 10 years of diagnosis, thus this question is of extreme importance for people with these conditions.
The “Work It” study found a significantly lower rate of job loss for the group that received the therapist-delivered intervention, compared to the group that received the control condition (printed materials on job retention). Given the high rate of job loss among persons with arthritis, the practical impact of such an intervention on job retention could be substantial.
