Table 2.
Overview of the characteristics and design of the studies. [CMD=common mental disorder; MMAT=mixed methods appraisal tool; LCA=latent class analysis; Obs=observational; RCT=randomized controlled trial; Int=intervention; SAW=stay at work: WP=work performance]
| Author and reference | Type of study and study methodology | Number of participants | Study population (type of employees/sector) | Industry/ type of employees | MMAT score (H=rated as ‘high quality’; M=rated as ‘medium’) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Articles reporting on both SAW and WP | |||||
| Arends et al 2019 (51) | Obs: LCA | 158 | Dutch employees with CMD, mostly highly educated, who are in return to work trajectories | Various sectors | M: 3/5: no data on representativeness, low N for LCA |
| Birney et al 2016 (54) | Int: parallel two group RCT | 300 | US employees with depression, mostly middle-aged, Caucasian, female, highly educated | Unknown, part-time, fulltime and self employed | H: 4/5 blocked on race/ethnicity |
| Chen et al 2011 (69) | Obs: analytical cross-sectional study | 452 (controls) 226 (cases) | Taiwanese young workers with depressive disorder at psychiatric clinics | Micro electronics engineers | H: 5/5 |
| Daley et al 2009 (60) | Obs: cross sectional descriptive | 308 patients | Canadian patients with symptoms of insomnia and 147 with insomnia syndrome, of whom 76.4% worked day shifts | Unknown | H: 5/5 |
| Danielsson et al 2017 (6) | Obs: qualitative | 27 | Swedish workers, of various ages and job types, suffering from common mental disorders | Various sectors | H: 5/5 |
| Duijts et al 2008 (45) | Int: RCT | 57 (int) 61(control) | Dutch employees in 3 companies, with psychosocial health complaints, who are still working in health and educational sector at risk of sickness absence | Health Education | H: 4/5 low adherence to intervention (49%) |
| Dunner et al 2001 (63) | Int: before after studies | 816 | US patients with recurrent major depression who worked part-time or fulltime | Unknown | H: 5/5 |
| Ebert et al 2016 (53) | Int: RCT | 63 | German employees with elevated stress levels, various sectors, mostly women and medium or high educated | Economy, service, social, IT, health, other | H: 5/5 |
| Evans-Lacko & Knapp 2018 (29) | Obs: cross sectional survey | 2985 | Employees with self-reported depression from 15 different countries worldwide, mostly in Asian countries, from several sectors except marketing sector | Unknown, company size and working status varied | H: 4/5 Low response rate, representability of target population unclear |
| Hilton et al 2008 (41) | Obs: cross sectional study | 60,556 | Employees in New Zealand and Australia working in large companies, high level of psychological distress | Large public and private sector employers | H: 4/5 low response rate, blue collar underrepresented |
| Jha et al 2016 (81) | Int longitudinal study | 331 | US employed patients with nonpsychotic chronic or recurrent depression with current episode of more than 2 months | Unknown | M: 3/5 missing information about int., adherence and drop out |
| Johnson et al 2015 (64) | Int: controlled trial, not randomized. | 40 of whom 20 in int. group | US working health care professionals, aged 18-65 years, who are at least 50% or higher employee status. With major depressive disorder, single episode or recurrent | Health care | H: 4/5: No sub group analysis or confounders due to small group of participants |
| Lerner et al 2010 (39) | Obs: longitudinal cohort study | 286 | US employees with depression, despite occupational group, married, gender, recruited through primary health care centres | Various sectors | H: 4/5: incomplete outcome data |
| Lerner at al 2020 (70) | Int: RCT | 253 | US veterans, with mild to moderate depression | Veterans | H: 5/5 |
| Plaisier et al 2010 (59) | Obs, descriptive longitudinal | 1035 | Dutch workers with common mental health disorders | Unknown | H: 5/5 |
| Plaisier et al 2012 (33) | Obs: cross sectional, descriptive | 1522 | Dutch workers who have an employer or who are self-employed (5%) with depression or anxiety disorder | Manual and non-manual jobs, self employed | H: 5/5 |
| Richmond et al 2017 (36) | Int: prospective, quasi experimental design | 344 | US employees, mostly female (71%), white (87%) and non-Hispanic (81%), average education was 16 years, working for the government, with depression or anxiety | Diverse in human service providers | H: 4/5 incomplete outcome data |
| Ridge et al 2019 (48) | Obs: Qualitative | 73 | 73 Australian and UK participants self-identified as having experienced depression | Professional or manual work | H: 4/5 quotes are rather general |
| Rost et al 2004 (47) | Int: RCT | 198 | US employed patients with major depression, mostly female (84.4), high school educated (88.5%), mostly full time employed (80%) | Administrators, managers, sales people, services | H: 4/5 missing information on intended treatment and utilization |
| Sahlin et al 2014 (50) | Int: before and after study | 33 | Swedish female health care workers suffering from high level of stress | Health care workers | H: Mixed method: 5/5 qual, 3/5 for quant: confounders not taken into account in analysis, not representative |
| Swanson et al 2011 (62) | Obs: cross sectional survey | 367 | US workers with any sleep disorder, with shift work | White, grey, blue collar and shift workers | M: 3/5: low response rate, no validated questionnaire |
| Telle et al 2016 (67) | Int: RCT one factorial design with two groups | 99 | German employees who subjectively felt mentally distress due to work-related issues, voluntary participation | 13 different private corporations and federal and public organizations | M: 3/5: incomplete outcome data and low adherence to intervention |
| Uribe et al 2017 (57) | Obs: cross sectional | 107 | Colombian employees with major depression or double depression (N=107) | Unknown, employees part time, full time, self-employed | H: 5/5 |
| van den Berg et al 2017 (40) | Obs: Cross sectional analytical | 661 | Dutch health care employees, mostly female and intermediate or high education, with a mental disorder | Health care workers | H: 5/5 |
| van Mill et al 2013 (44) | Obs: epidemiologic cohort study | 707 CMD and 728 without | Dutch depressed or anxious individuals who work 8 hours or more | Unknown | H: 5/5 |
| Wang et al 2007 (55) | Int: RCT | 604 of whom 304 in int. group | US employees with at least moderate depression, enrolled in a large managed behavioural health care company (insurance) | Diverse sectors: airline, insurance, banking, public utility, government, manufacturing | H: 5/5 |
| Woo et al 2011 (49) | Int: controlled trial | 106 and 91 healthy controls | South Korean employees with major depressive disorder | Employees in highly industrialized areas | H: 4/5 incomplete outcome data |
| Articles reporting on SAW | |||||
| Chakraborty & Subramanya 2013 (31) | Comparison Obs | 43 | Indian, industrial employees who work in an urban aeronautical industry who experience stress | Urban industrial employees | M: 3/5 selection bias |
| Cocker et al 2011 (56) | Obs: descriptive survey data | 320 | Australians with life time depression | Various sectors | H: 5/5 |
| Corbiere et al 2016 (28) | Obs: qualitative | 22 | Canadian, mostly highly educated employees with symptoms of depression | Public, private and non-profit sector | H: 4/5 Recall bias, currently not working but during last 5 years |
| Hammond et al 2017 (30) | Obs: qualitative | 6 | Clinical psychologists in Australia who run a solo private practice, who experienced burnout maximum 2 years ago | Health care: psychologists | H: 5/5 |
| Kawakami et al 1999 (65) | Int: RCT | 81 in int, 77 in control group | Workers, mostly male, who are distressed and employed in Japan | Manufacturing company | M: 2/5: no information on randomization, no baseline comparison between groups, adherence unknown |
| Keus van de Poll et al 2020 (43) | Int: RCT | 100 | Swedish, mostly government workers using occupational health services suffering from CMD or work stress | Mainly public service employees | H: 4/5 not representative study population |
| Kok et al 2017 (32) | Obs: before and after study | 1222 | Dutch employees with an affective disorder | Unknown | H: 5/5 |
| Laitinen-Krispijn & Bijl 2000 (34) | Obs: longitudinal study, follow up 1 year | 3695 | Dutch male employees with major depressive disorder, dysthymia, simple phobia and substance abuse/dependence | Unknown | M: 3/5: unclear outcome measure on duration of sick leave, few confounders |
| Leijten et al 2013 (37) | Obs: longitudinal study | 354 | Older Dutch employees with psychological problems (not specified) | Unknown | H: 5/5 |
| Lexis et al 2009 (58) | Obs: prospective cohort | 3339 | Dutch employees with depressive complaints, from various organizations and companies | Various sectors | H: 5/5 |
| Lexis et al 2011 (68) | Int: RCT | 139 | Dutch employees with depressive complaints, from various organizations and companies | Office workers | H: 5/5 |
| Linden et al 2011 (52) | Int: before after study | 44 outpatients | German employees, with generalized anxiety disorder in outpatient departments | Unknown | M: 3/5 missing info on representativeness and confounders |
| Mackenzie et al 2014 (46) | Int: RCT | 93 | Australian workers with depression, generalizes anxiety disorder and social phobia | Unknown | M: 2/5: randomization not explained, loss to follow up |
| Noordik et al 2011 (23) | Qualitative | 14 | 10 Dutch women and 4 men, aged 25–58 (mean age 38) years, partially returned to work | Various sectors incl. health care | H: 5/5 |
| O’Haire & Rodriguez 2018 (66) | Int: non RCT | 141 in int., 75 control | US veterans working elsewhere and who were identified with PTSD after 9/11 | Veterans | H: 4/5: 24,7% of population is working |
| Sado et al 2014 (61) | Obs: retrospective cohort | 194 | Japanese workers in a manufacturing company with repeated sick leave because of mental disorders | Manufacturing company | H: 5/5 |
| Virtanen et al 2007 (38) | Obs: prospective study, | 6663 female, 1323 male | Finnish local government employees and health care employees in public services with psychological distress | Public sector employees | H: 5/5 |
| Vlasveld et al 2013 (101) | Obs: cross sectional | 1425 | Dutch workers with psychopathology (anxiety or depressive disorder) | Unknown | H: 5/5 |
| Woodall et al 2017 (35) | Qualitative: semi-structured interviews | 15 | UK current or former service users with mental health conditions | Unknown | H: 5/5 |
| Articles reporting on WP | |||||
| Adler et al 2006 (72) | Obs: longitudinal | 286 | US patients with major depressive disorder (N=105) or dysthymia (N=72) or both (N=109) | Mostly women 1) managers, professionals, and technicians; 2) sales, service, and support; | H: 5/5 |
| Beck et al 2014 (78) | Obs prospective cohort | 432 | US working patients, on routine depression treatment | Unknown | H: 4/5: work context not in analysis |
| Bertilsson et al 2013 (74) | Obs qualitative | 17 | Swedish persons with CMD employed in regular job market, mainly women | Private and public sector | H: 4/5 late reflection on data |
| Danielsson et al 2020 (84) | Int: pilot RCT | 147 | Swedish employees with CMD, mainly female, on work-directed rehabilitation | Various sectors | H: 5/5 |
| Furukawa et al 2012 (75) | Int: RCT non-blinded | 108, of whom 58 in int. group | Japanese currently employed, mostly male, fulltime workers with minor depression at a large manufacturing company | Manufacturing company | H: 5/5 |
| Haslam et al 2005 (71) | Obs: Qualitative | 74 | UK workers with personal experience of anxiety/depression in the previous 2 years and who are mostly (2/3) uncompliant with medication | Various sectors | H: 4/5 the interpretation of results insufficiently supported by data |
| Kim et al 2019 (73) | Obs: cross sectional | 173 | South Korean workers with depression | Various sectors | H: 5/5 |
| Lam et al 2011 (80) | Int: pilot study | 31 | Canadian health agency workers (predominantly women, above 40), with symptoms of depression, counselling is purchased by employer and self-referred to the EAP | Health care | M: 4/5: small pilot study, self-referred to intervention, no confounders in analysis |
| Lappalainen et al 2013 (77) | Int: small scale RCT | 11 int and 12 in control (waiting list) | Finnish male workers with stress and mood problems | Unknown | M: 2/5: no information on randomization, self-assessed outcome, no blinding |
| Lindsater et al 2018 (76) | Int: RCT | 50 int. 50 in control | Swedish employees (of whom 82% employed full time or part-time), with adjustment disorder or exhaustion disorder | National sample | H: 5/5 |
| Loukine et al 2016 (42) | Obs: cross-sectional | 2528 | Canadian workers with self-reported mood or anxiety disorders | Unknown | H: 5/5 |
| Nigatu et al 2015 (79) | Obs: descriptive longitudinal | 555 | Dutch employees, currently having a major depression or anxiety disorder, mostly white collar workers | Unknown | H: 5/5 |
| Okajima et al 2020 (83) | Int: RCT | 92 | Young Japanese employees with insomnia | Mostly office employees | H: 4/5: many lost to follow up |
| Petersson et al 2018 (82) | Int: RCT | 132 | Swedish Patients with mild to moderate depressive disorder | Various sectors, white- / blue collar | M: 3/5: low adherence and incomplete outcome data |
| Rothermund et al 2016 (102) | Int: controlled obs. trial | 367 | German employed patients of whom N=174 use psychotherapeutic consultation in the workplace | Three companies, unknown | H: 5/5 |