Forskning om tiltak for å redusere langvarige og hyppige sykefravær i arbeidslivet: Et forskningskart

Background Sick leave among Norwegian workers is somewhat high, relative to other countries. The current letter of intent regarding a more inclusive working life (‘IA-avtalen’) aims to reduce the number of people in Norway who are outside the labour force and who have sickness absence. The IA-agreement stresses that long-term sick leave is one main reason for people drifting out of the labour force and into longstanding health-related welfare benefits. The Directorate of Labor and Welfare's research and development program related to the IA-agreement defines long-term and/or frequent sickness absence as eight weeks and longer. In Norway, there are a number of initiatives to reduce the risk of long-term and/or frequent sickness absence, and thus the risk of drifting out of the labour force, such as dialogue meetings, Health|Work, work-oriented rehabilitation measures and partial/graded sick leave. Objective The purpose of this literature review, which is presented in an evidence and gap map, was to get an overview of the research about measures to reduce the rate of long-term and/or frequent sickness absence, get an impression of the extent of risk of bias in the research, and to uncover potential gaps in research. Method We conducted an evidence and gap map. The research team and the commissioner (the Directorate of Labor and Welfare) clarified the research question, as well as searches and delimiters with regard to inclusion criteria prior to conducting the review. We conducted systematic literature searches for any empirical study (all study designs) that aimed to describe the effect of measures to reduce long-term (≥8 consecutive weeks) and/or frequent recurring (≥8 weeks in total) sick leave. The studies had to be published in 2001 or later, and be from Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany or Australia. Studies from Germany and Australia were to be placed on a separate list without data extraction. The studies had to report outcomes related to return to work or use of social security benefits and graded sick leave. Two researchers, working in pairs and independently of each other, assessed titles and abstracts against the inclusion and exclusion criteria. We reviewed the full texts of the included publications and coded them in the data extraction tool EPPI Reviewer, using a predetermined framework. The coding of the studies was performed by one researcher and controlled by another researcher. Two rese