Judith K Sluiter

Academisch Medisch Centrum Universiteit van Amsterdam | AMC · Coronel Institute for Occupational and Environmental Health, Academic Medical Center

Objective To examine three levels of need for recovery (NFR) after work in relation to effort from work demands, demand compensatory strategies, effort-moderating or -reversing resources, and health including health behaviors. A further purpose was to examine occupational characteristics determining NFR. Methods 5000 engineers, carpenters, nurses,...

Background: Although workers' health surveillance is an important preventive activity, it is not regularly performed. In addition to the occupational physician, the management of occupational health services can also be involved in the performance of workers' health surveillance. The present study investigated the view and policy of the management...

Purpose To assess: (1) whether work ability and work-functioning instruments can detect relevant changes in their respective parameters following a return to work (RTW) and (2) what proportion of those returning to work show changes in their work ability and work functioning. Methods A total of 1073 workers who returned to work after at least 2 we...

INTRODUCTION: A flight is composed of many flight performance aspects. However, not all of these aspects are equally important for the success and safety of a flight. When investigating the influence of a stressor on flight performance, it is important to understand not only which flight performance aspects are important for the success and the saf...

Objective: Person-related factors influencing work participation of employees with health problems are important. However, the best method to obtain information about them according to occupational physicians (OPs) and insurance physicians (IPs), is unknown. Methods: Questionnaires in which OPs and IPs rated the importance of and described methods...

Background Conflicting results have been reported regarding employment status and work ability in adults with congenital heart disease (CHD). Since this is an important determinant for quality of life, we assessed this in a large international adult CHD cohort. Methods Data from 4028 adults with CHD (53% women) from 15 different countries were col...

Background Healthcare workers (HCW) are at risk for developing hand dermatitis (HD). Guidelines recommend moisturizers to prevent HD, but in practice their effectiveness is poorly investigated. Objectives To assess whether an intervention aimed at improving skin care leads to reduction in HD severity. Methods In this 1‐year RCT, 9 wards (285 HCW)...

The implementation and use of ergonomic measures is dependent on behavioural changes of both employers and employees. In these stakeholder-groups different barriers could emerge with respect to using ergonomic measures. Participatory strategies – guided by professional ergonomic consultants – are thought to stimulate behavioural change of the stake...

Background Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at high risk of developing hand dermatitis (HD). Current guidelines on HD prevention recommend the use of emollients; however, in practice, adherence is poor. Objective To assess whether the provision of creams, electronic monitoring and feedback on cream consumption can improve skin care in HCWs. Methods...

To improve the use of ergonomics tools by construction workers, the effect of two guidance strategies – a face-to-face strategy (F2F) and an e-guidance strategy (EG) – of a participatory ergonomics intervention was studied. Twelve construction companies were randomly assigned to the F2F group or the EG group. The primary outcome measure, the percen...

Objective: Heterogeneity of depression experiences has led to suggestions that interventions focus on depression symptom combinations rather than depression severity alone. Our analyses explores the question, "What is the relationship between different combinations of depression symptoms and work productivity losses?" Methods: These analyses use...

Objective: To investigate the differences in return to work (RTW), participants' satisfaction, and costs of early versus late vocational rehabilitation after acquired brain injury (ABI). Design: Longitudinal, prospective study. Setting: Two Dutch rehabilitation centres that implemented either the Early Vocational Rehabilitation (EVR) or the Late...

Background: The Healthy Hands Project (HHP) is a randomised clinical trial aiming to determine the effectiveness of an intervention program in the prevention of hand dermatitis in healthcare workers (HCWs). The intervention is comprised of placing dispensers with hand creams on wards combined with continuous electronic monitoring of cream consumpt...

Table S1. Spearman correlation coefficients for the relationship between investigated parameters measured at 24 and 96 hours.

Background Recently, natural moisturizing factors (NMFs) and corneocyte surface topography were suggested as biomarkers for irritant dermatitis. Objectives To investigate how exposure to different irritants influences corneocyte surface topography, NMF levels and the barrier function of human skin in vivo. Methods Eight healthy adult volunteers w...

Introduction To gain insight into which job-specific health requirements relate to self-estimated work ability, the following two research questions were formulated: Which job-specific health requirements are associated with the appraisal of work ability in ambulance drivers and paramedics? How are appraisals of physical and mental work ability ass...

Introduction In Workers’ Health Surveillance, workers are presented with their results of preventive tests. How the test results should be presented in this context in order to influence help-seeking behaviour, e.g. visiting a health provider, is not known. The aim of this study is to examine the influence of presentation of the results of a preven...

A lack of sufficient recovery during and after work may help to explain impaired health in the long run. We aimed to increase knowledge on the mediating role of recovery opportunities (RO) during and after work on future sickness absence from a gender- and age-sensitive perspective. We used data on RO from a Swedish national survey in 2011 and link...

Introduction Ergonomic measures are available to reduce high physical work demands among construction workers. Providing construction workers with information of risk factors alone will not be effective in increasing the use of ergonomic measures due to the complex working environment, the involvement of many different stakeholders and the conserva...

Introduction In Occupational Health (OH), the application of shared decision making (SDM) is not very well developed. As high level evidence on effectiveness of many OH interventions is scarce and often different options for OH interventions are available, preference-sensitive decisions in OH are prevalent. We studied a theoretical preference-sensi...

Three examples of evaluating Dutch workplace interventions will be presented. This is input for discussing the essential elements in evaluations of interventions at workplaces on outcomes for work-related diseases or injuries. • Needle stick injuries (NSIs) are frequently reported as occupational injuries among health care workers. The objective o...

Introduction To protect patient safety in the operating room it is important to create awareness among surgeons and anaesthetists on their own work readiness and its influence on their performance. The purpose of the study was to design a tool (DOCpass), study its feasibility in daily operating room practice and redesign it based on suggestions mad...

Introduction WHS is a preventive periodical strategy to monitor the work-relevant aspects of health in specific groups of workers. The idea is that occupational health professionals could signal individual problems that could lead to a decrease in work ability, and intervene timely on those aspects. In the Netherlands, specific guidelines exist for...

Introduction Many paid workers who fulfil informal care responsibilities in their private situation report stress complaints and impaired functioning at work. It was examined whether a newly developed role-focused self-help intervention decreases caregiver stress and distress, and work functioning problems, in these workers. Methods A study that h...

Introduction Depression is one of the most prevalent mental disorders in the working population. About 10% of workers currently have at least one mental disorder; approximately 2%–7% of the workforce experiences depression. There is growing awareness of the social and economic costs of depression and its heavy workplace burden. Recognising the hete...

Background: The aim of the research was to examine whether a role-focused self-help course intervention would decrease caregiver stress and distress, and functioning problems, among people who suffer stress because they combine paid work with informal care. Methods: A pre-registered (NTR 5528) randomized controlled design was applied (interventi...

Background Donating blood is associated with increased psychological stress. This study investigates whether a blood donation induces physiological stress and if response patterns differ by gender, donation experience and non‐acute stress. Study design and methods In 372 donors, physiological stress [blood pressure, pulse rate, pulse rate variabil...

To gain insight in the process of applying two guidance strategies –face-to-face (F2F) or e-guidance strategy (EC) – of a Participatory Ergonomics (PE) intervention and whether differences between these guidance strategies occur, 12 construction companies were randomly assigned to a strategy. The process evaluation contained reach, dose delivered,...

Background: Work ability (WA) and work functioning (WF) instruments can be useful in occupational health practice. The reproducibility of both instruments is important to their relevance for daily practice. Clinimetrics concerns the methodological and statistical quality of instruments and their performance in practice. Aims: To assess the repro...

PurposeTo research within-person fluctuations in occupational health, work ability and wellbeing, we need new measurement strategies. We studied absolute agreement for weekly measurements of task-specific work ability and relationships between wellbeing, work demands and personal factors and task-specific work ability over time. Methods Forty-eight...

Objective: To study the influence of the presentation of results of a preventive medical examination on risk perception and willingness to seek help for work-related fatigue or being overweight. Methods: A factorial design experiment was conducted, presenting workers (n = 82) with vignettes including eight scenarios of test results with and with...

Background Work productivity loss is associated with disease activity in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. However, patients in clinical remission experience more work limitations than healthy controls. We aimed to explore potential differences in type of problems that lead to IBD-related absenteeism and presenteeism in patients with activ...

Background Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is associated with impaired quality of life and work disability. We aimed to: (i) describe Quality of Working Life (QWL) in IBD patients, and (ii) assess convergent validity of the QWL Questionnaire (QWLQ). Methods IBD patients attending our outpatient clinic between May 1, 2017 and August 31, 2017, were...

Background Chronic work-related stress is quite prevalent in the working population and is in some cases accompanied by long-term sick leave. These stress complaints highly impact employees and are costly due to lost productivity and medical expenses. A new treatment platform with light therapy plus Pulsed Electro Magnetic Fields (PEMF) in combinat...

Background and objectives: Donating blood has been associated with increased stress responses, with scarce evidence indicating that levels of psychological and hormonal stress are higher pre-donation than post-donation. We investigated whether a blood donation induces psychological and/or hormonal stress during the course of a blood donation, and...

PurposeThe purpose was to increase job-specific knowledge about individual and work-related factors and their relationship with current and future work ability (WA). We studied cross-sectional relationships between mental demands, physical exertion during work, grip strength, musculoskeletal pain in the upper extremities and WA and the relationship...

Introduction: The purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of hypobaric hypoxia (HH) on a pilot's flight performance during exposure to simulated altitudes of 91, 3048, and 4572 m (300, 10,000, and 15,000 ft) and to monitor the pilot's physiological reactions. Method: In a single-blinded counter-balanced design, 12 male pilots w...

Background The aim was to examine cross-sectional associations between opportunities for recovery at work and excellent work ability among young workers and specifically for young workers with high work demands. Methods A study group of 1295 women and 1056 men aged 18–29 years was selected from three biennial years of a population cohort. The stud...

Background: Mandatory medical examinations (MMEs) of workers should be based on the health and safety requirements that are needed for effectively performing the relevant work. For police personnel in the Netherlands, no job-specific MME exists that takes the specific tasks and duties into account. Aims: To provide the Dutch National Police with...

A lack of sufficient recovery during and after work may help to explain impaired health in the long run. We aimed to increase knowledge on the mediating role of recovery opportunities (RO) during and after work on future sickness absence from a gender- and age-sensitive perspective. We used data on RO from a Swedish national survey in 2011 and link...

The new why when designing mandatory medical examinations.

Background To protect patient safety it is important that surgeons and anaesthetists are aware of work readiness and its influence on their performance before each operation The purpose of the study was to design a tool to promote such awareness, DOCpass, to study its feasibility in operating room practice and redesign it. Material and methods The...

Purpose The objective of the present study was to validate an existing prediction rule (including age, education, depressive/anxiety symptoms, and recovery expectations) for predictions of the duration of sickness absence due to common mental disorders (CMDs) and investigate the added value of work-related factors. Methods A prospective cohort stud...

Objective: The purpose of this study was to systematically review the literature for the consequences Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has on cognitive, psychological, physical, and sports-related functioning in professional American Football players. Data sources: We performed a systematic search in 2 databases, PubMed and SPORTDiscus, to obtain li...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the barriers to and solutions for return to work (RTW) from the perspective of unemployed workers who were sick-listed due to psychological problems. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 sick-listed unemployed workers with psychological problems. All workers experienced multiple problems related...

Background: Health care workers (HCW) are at high risk for developing occupational hand dermatitis (HD) due to frequent exposure to 'wet work'. Amongst HCWs, nurses are at highest risk, with an estimated point prevalence of HD ranging between 12 and 30%. The burden of disease is high with chronicity, sick leave, risk of unemployment and impaired q...

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore whether two types of emotional labor, surface acting and deep acting, are related to hair cortisol concentration among kindergarten teachers. Methods: Surface acting and deep acting over the last month were measured with the Chinese version of the emotional labor scale in 43 kindergarten teach...

Purpose: To gain insight into which job-specific health requirements relate to work ability, the following two research questions were formulated: Which job-specific health requirements are associated with the appraisal of work ability in ambulance drivers and paramedics? How are appraisals of physical and mental work ability associated with the a...

Het aantal medewerkers dat zich ziek meldt met psychische stoornissen, zoals depressie, angst en aanpassingsstoornissen, wordt steeds groter. Psychische stoornissen zijn de oorzaak van een aanzienlijk deel van het langdurige ziekteverzuim en zijn de belangrijkste reden voor een WIA-uitkering onder medewerkers jonger dan 55 jaar.¹ Prognostische mode...

Objective: Insights into early indicators of depression in workers are needed to inform indicated depression prevention programs. This study looked at how a high Need for Recovery (NFR) is related to a higher likelihood of a depressive disorder. Second, the added value of considering NFR over traditional work-related risk factors for depression wa...

Background/objectives: Negative experiences (NEs) have been shown to result in an increased stress response, as indicated by blood pressure, at the subsequent donation. This response might be influenced by how the donor rates the donation in terms of importance and pleasantness [affective attitude (AA)/cognitive attitude (CA)] or by anxiety about...

Purpose: To evaluate the barriers to and solutions for return to work (RTW) from the perspective of unemployed workers who were sick-listed due to mental health problems. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 sick-listed unemployed workers with mental health problems. Qualitative data analysis was performed, using a process of id...

Background Common mental disorders (CMD—burnout, stress, depression and anxiety disorders) are prevalent in physicians. Aims To investigate the relationship between CMD and medical incidents and/or unprofessional behaviour in hospital physicians. Methods PubMed was searched for all articles published between 2003 and 2013 that study a relationshi...

Background Better opportunities for recovery at work are thought to be associated with work ability in a young workforce but evidence is scarce to lacking. The aim of this study was to examine cross-sectional associations between opportunities for recovery at work and excellent work ability among young workers and specifically for young workers wit...

Background Work-related chronic stress is a common problem among workers. The core complaint is that the employee feels exhausted, which has an effect on the well-being and functioning of the employee, and an impact on the employer and society. The employee’s absence is costly due to lost productivity and medical expenses. The usual form of care fo...

Purpose: We aim to provide evidence for improving fit to work assessments for rail safety workers and raised the question whether adding an assessment of work limitations is useful. Therefore, we assessed differences in the proportions of perceived work limitations and reported health complaints and whether older age or having health complaints ar...

Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of and influences on work ability in young workers related to their work and life situation. Methods: In a qualitative study of a strategic sample of 12 young female and 12 young male workers, aged 25-30 years, in work or recently left work, recruited from the 5-year follow-up of a Sw...

Purpose: To explore whether the prevalence and determinants of insufficient work ability (WA) of older HIV-positive workers differ from a comparable group of HIV-negative workers. Methods: Cross-sectional data from 359 HIV-negative and 264 HIV-positive middle-aged individuals (45-65 years) participating in paid labor, collected within the AGEhIV...

Objective: Employers have increasingly been interested in decreasing work stress. However, little attention has been given to recovery from the exertion experienced during work. This paper addresses the question: how does the presence of high need for recovery (HNFR) affect the association between perceived high chronic exposure to stressful work...

Objectives: To test the predictive value and convergent construct validity of a 6-item work functioning screener (WFS-H). Methods: Healthcare workers (249 nurses) completed a questionnaire containing the work functioning screener (WFS-H) and a work functioning instrument (NWFQ) measuring the following: cognitive aspects of task execution and gen...

Background:Healthcare workers are at high risk for developing mental health complaints due to frequent exposure to risk factors such as high work demands, low work control and high emotional demands. Aim: To be able to plan a job-specific workers’ health surveillance (WHS) program properly, knowledge about the number of workers that could be expect...

Electrical screed levelling machines are developed to reduce kneeling and trunk flexion of sand–cement-bound screed floor layers. An observational intervention study among 10 floor layers was performed to assess the differences between a self-propelled and a manually moved machine. The outcome measures were work demands, production time, perceived...

De incidentie van de achillespeesruptuur is 21,5 per 100.000 persoonsjaren en de incidentie lijkt toe te nemen: van 2,1 in 1979, 4,7 in 1981, 5,5 in 1998, 9,9 in 2002, naar 21,5 in 2011. De meeste achillespeesrupturen zijn sportgerelateerd: ongeveer 70%. Opmerkelijk is dat de jaarlijkse incidentiestijging hoger is voor niet-sporters dan de stijging...

Background: Work-related health problems can impair the work ability of hospital physicians and pose a threat to patient safety. Understanding the health status and care needs of young hospital physicians is therefore essential to providing job-specific health services and ensuring good future quality of care. Aims: To investigate the current he...

Background: A job-specific Worker's Health Surveillance (WHS) for hospital physicians is a preventive occupational health strategy aiming at early detection of their diminished work-related health in order to improve or maintain physician's health and quality of care. This study addresses what steps should be taken to determine the content of a jo...

A high prevalence of mental health problems (i.e. depression and/or anxiety) has been found in medical students in comparison with the general population. Therefore, the objective was first to study the prevalence and 1-year incidence of symptoms of depression, anxiety and any mental health problems among Dutch medical students and, second, to stud...

Background Negative donation experiences, like being deferred or experiencing an adverse reaction, might upset blood donors, resulting in anticipatory stress responses such as elevated blood pressure at the subsequent visit. We therefore explored associations between blood donors’ negative donation experiences and their blood pressure at the subseq...

1. Introduction Kneeling and trunk flexion frequently occur among screed floor layers and are associated with high prevalence and incidence rates of low back and knee complaints. In the Netherlands, ergonomic measures became available for floor layers to perform their work in a more upright working posture by means of lectrical screed leveling mach...

Ethnic inequalities in mental health have been found in many high-income countries. The purpose of this study is to test whether mental health inequalities between ethnic groups are mediated by exposure to unfavourable working conditions. Workers (n = 6278) were selected from baseline data of the multi-ethnic HELIUS study. Measures included two ind...

Nurses are at elevated risk of burnout, anxiety and depressive disorders, and may then become less productive. This begs the question if a preventive intervention in the work setting might be cost-saving from a business perspective. A cost-benefit analysis was conducted to evaluate the balance between the costs of a preventive intervention among nu...

A Workers' Health Surveillance (WHS) program is an occupational health strategy used to detect and address the health of individual workers to improve their ability to work. This study aims to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of a new job-specific WHS for hospital physicians. All hospital physicians of the general surgery, radiotherapy...

Rib stress fractures (RSFs) are injuries frequently sustained by elite rowers with an injury rate of 8-16% over the course of a rowing career, resulting in negative effects on training and performance. For clinical management, the aim of this review was to describe time to return to sports, summarize potentially preventive measures and appraise the...

A new approach to the study of work ability is an individually oriented approach. This approach increases our understanding of how work ability develops over time among individuals with a different level of work ability. To increase knowledge about individuals' work ability trajectories by studying hospital nurses' development of work ability over...

Background: Among the working population, unemployed, temporary agency and expired fixed-term contract workers having psychological problems are a particularly vulnerable group, at risk for sickness absence and prolonged work disability. Studies investigating the effectiveness of return-to-work (RTW) interventions on these workers, who are without...

Objective: To determine the relative importance of central work functioning domains and propose a method for composite weighted measurement of the concept "work functioning." Methods: Health-impaired workers, healthy workers, and employers (n = 277) weighed work functioning domains by participating in a discrete choice experiment. A logistic reg...

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate (1) the feasibility of an early vocational rehabilitation (EVR) protocol in the standard rehabilitation process, (2) promoting factors and barriers encountered with the EVR protocol, and (3) perceived effectiveness of the protocol in facilitating return to work (RTW) following acquired brain injur...

The purpose of this study was to explore whether work strain (i.e., job demands and job control) and subjective need for recovery (NFR) after work are related to measured concentration of cumulative cortisol. Participants were 43 teachers recruited from kindergarten. They self-reported their NFR, job demands and job control over the last month. NFR...

Background: In common with elite athletes from other sport disciplines, severe or recurrent injuries in professional footballers are considered to be major physical and psychosocial stressors, which may predispose to mental health problems during and after their career. Aims: To determine the prevalence of mental health problems and psychosocial...

To investigate Dutch novice nurses' experiences and needs regarding occupational health support to prevent work-related health problems and to keep them well-functioning. A qualitative interview study was conducted with six nursing students and eight newly qualified nurses. The interviews covered three topics: experiences with the link between work...