Table 2 Definitions of the assessment of fitness for work proposed in the literature.

Article	Definition
Harber et al, 19846	To determine the match between the worker's ability and the occupational requirements.
Floyd and Espir, 19867	Information on the medical history of applicants, which is used by employers to decide if their physical and mental capacity meets the required job standards.
Cowell, 19868	Objective assessment of the physical and mental health of employees in relation to the requirements and working conditions of specific jobs, to ensure that the workers will not be a hazard to themselves or others.
Hessel and Zeiss, 198810	To evaluate the ability of workers to perform their work without risks for themselves or others.
Nethercott, 199417	To determine whether workers have a disease that may render them unable to perform the essential job functions with reasonable accommodation and without placing the worker and others at material risk of injury or disease.
Johns et al, 199418	Matching worker abilities to essential functions of the job.
Hainer, 199419	To make sure that an individual is fit to perform the work task assigned without risk to his or her health or to another's well‐being.
Hoffman and Guidotti, 199420	The assessment of abilities (capabilities) rather than the disabilities (unfitness); the intent is to assess the worker's capability to perform a particular job, not to discover a health problem to disqualify a worker from employment. The worker's health is assessed in the context of specific job requirements to estimate the worker's ability to perform without risk to himself or others.
McCunney, 199622	To ensure a proper fit between the applicant and the job, so that the person's health is not placed at risk; a major element for safety‐sensitive positions is to determine whether the person has a health condition that may place others at risk; to assess the risk, the concept of “direct threat” needs to be applied.
Davies, 199623	Definition by Cox et al2: To make sure that an individual is fit to perform the task involved effectively and without risk to their own or others' health and safety.
Popper, 199725	Fitness for duty: individuals meet basic medical criteria to be accepted into and continue with a job (military) where they will not be at increased risk because of their medical history or current medical condition. Physical fitness: ability to perform various tasks requiring aerobic and anaerobic capacities with appropriate neuromuscular coordination.
Colledge et al, 199926	To match safely and appropriately the worker to the workplace.
Mohr et al, 199927	Medical opinions based on careful and systematic analysis of health problems, their relationship with the capacity and risk for a given job and the knowledge of potential adaptations; conclusions need to reflect the limitations of scientific knowledge and be guided by legislation against discrimination.
Merkel et al, 200029	Definition by Cox et al2: To make sure that an individual is fit to perform the task involved effectively and without risk to their own or others' health and safety.
Chan et al, 200034	A two‐pronged process of identifying work ability (whether physical, mental or mixed) of the individual (while screening for pathological disease) and correlating it with the respective nature of the work, with reasonable job redesign.
Rigaud, 200135	Fitness for work: a condition in which workers are physically, physiologically and psychologically/mentally capable of performing the tasks of their assigned jobs in required standards of safety, attendance, quality, efficiency and behaviour. An individual worker's fitness for work may either become temporarily or permanently, partially or totally, impaired by medical, psychological/mental/behavioural or physical conditions or by personal problems.
Glozier, 200239	To assess the capacity of workers to perform the job adequately, whether they pose health and safety risks and the likelihood of future sick leave.
McGregor, 200340	To identify those individuals who have an identifiable health condition relevant to safety or who have abnormal vulnerability to harm from a work process. Risk can then be managed by work adjustment, whenever reasonable, or by exclusion, if unavoidable.
Kashima, 200341	To assess whether the worker has current adequate levels of the required physical agility, strength and cardiopulmonary capacity to carry out safely the essential tasks of his or her job.