Table 1.

Characteristics of the study population (N = 569)

	Men (n = 283)	Women (n = 286)	t (df) or χ2 (df)	p-value*
Sociodemographic factors
Age, M (SD)	44.3 (9.7)	44.3 (9.7)	.055 (567)	0.956
Gender	49.7%	50.3%
Education:			20.493 (4)	<0.001
Primary and secondary	17.6%	10.4%
Upper secondary	52.6%	44.6%
College/University 1–4 years	17.3%	26.6%
College/University ≥ 4 years	4.4%	11.2%
Other	8.1%	7.2%
Smoking (yes)	46.5%	38.2%	4.254 (1)	0.039
Covariates
FABQ-Work, M (SD)	25.7 (9.6)	24.1 (10.3)	1.914 (547)	0.56
SHC, M (SD)	15.7 (9.5)	19.3 (9.4)	−4.360 (521)	<0.001
ODI, M (SD)	28.8 (12.3)	29.3 (12.6)	−408 (550)	0.684
HSCL:			4.556 (1)	.033
HSCL - < 1.75	70.6%	62%
HSCL - ≥ 1.75	29.4%	38%
Co-worker social support, M (SD)	19.3 (3.3)	18.8 (3.3)	1.971 (547)	0.049
Predictor variables
Job satisfaction:			5.162 (3)	0.160
Very satisfied	32.3%	29.2%
Satisfied	45%	45.8%
Neither satisfied or dissatisfied	18.2%	15.90%
Dissatisfied	3%	7.6%
Very dissatisfied	1.5%	1.4%
Return to work expectancies:			6.814 (3)	0.078
High expectancies	73.3%	75.1%
Moderate expectancies	13.3%	17.3%
Low expectancies	6.6%	2.9%
Do not know	7%	4.7%
Outcome
Work status at 12 months:
Returned to work	60.1%	52.4%

Continuous variables are presented by means (M) with standard deviation (SD) in parentheses, and categorical variables by percentages. N refers to the total sample size, and may deviate in some of the variables due to missing data

* Statistical tests and p-value for gender differences

Note: χ ²- tests between gender and the outcome, “Work status at 12 months”, were not performed as the associations between the independent variables and the dependent variable were analyzed with logistic regression models