Table 3.

Summary Table of Reviewed Literature and their characteristics

Authors	Country	Methodology and Methods	Participants	Data analysis	Themes
Oakman et al. [31]	Australia	Phenomenology Semi-structured interviews	N = 40, Age range: 18+ Manual and Sedentary occupation	Thematic analysis	Meaning of work, disclose or not, information seeking, gaps in resources, trusted sources
Agaliotis et al. [37]	Australia	Not specified Focus groups	N = 17 Age range: 51–77 Employees with chronic knee pain Private and public sector Professional and manual occupation	Systematic analysis used in grounded theory approach	The effect of knee pain on work productivity, strategies to improve work productivity, future suggestions about sustainable work
Oakman, Kinsman, and Briggs [30]	Australia	Mixed Methods Research Questionnaire followed by semi-structured interviews	N = 35 Age range: 25+ Adult employees with chronic musculoskeletal pain Private and public sector	A thematic approach using grounded theory principles.	Barriers to working productively, enablers to working productively, disclosing my condition at work
Holland and Collins [36]	UK	Not specified Semi-structured interviews	N = 11 Age range:32–58 Adult employees with rheumatoid arthritis Self-employed, private and public sector. Professional and semi-skilled occupations	Thematic analysis	The perceived importance of work, seeking normality after first onset, keeping productive, and employed through workplace adjustments, sickness absence policies causing pressure to work
Kalsi et al. [32]	UK	Not specified Focus groups	N = 17 Age range: 18–34 Adult employees with chronic pain	Thematic analysis	Living with chronic pain. the fine balance between chronic pain and return to work, work is a beautiful thing when you have it, the luck of the draw
Hutting et al. [33]	Netherlands	Not specified Focus groups [and three individual interviews due to participants’ attendance]	N = 15 Age range:25–56 Adult employees with complaints of the arm, neck, or shoulder. Professional and semi-skilled occupations Private and public sector	Convention-al content analysis	Ideas about the causes of complaints, dealing with non-visible complaints, experiences with different forms of treatment, workplace adjustments
De Vries et al. [35]	Netherlands	Not specified Semi-structured interviews	N = 21 Age range:30–60 Adult employees with chronic musculoskeletal pain Professional, unskilled and manual occupation Self-employed, private and public sector	Thematic analysis	Motivators to stay at work, Success factors for staying at work
Coole, Watson, and Drummond [34]	UK	Not specified Semi-structured interviews	N = 25 Age range: 22–58 Adult employees with low back pain. Self-employed, private and public sector from large and medium-sized companies. Professional, unskilled and manual occupation	Thematic analysis	Occupational Health assistance, assistance from employers/managers, work modifications and patient control
Wynne-Jones et al. [29]	UK	Mixed Methods Research Questionnaire and the semi-structured interviews	N = 18 employees Mean: 49,7 Adult employees and managers with chronic musculoskeletal pain Public sector Wide range of occupations	Thematic analysis	Impact of health, moral aspects of absence and attendance, absence management policies and return to work