Return-to-work of transgender patients : what do we know so far? A systematic review

Return-to-work of trans*patients : what do we know so far? A systematic review Introduction and objectives Trans* is an umbrella term for people identifying with the spectrum of transgenderism. Although return-to-work (RTW) is nowadays a major research domain, clear information of job re-entry of trans* patients undergoing a medical transition, is lacking. The objective is to examine several RTW-outcomes (RTW-rate, time-to-RTW, sick days, RTW-experiences) of trans*patients in existing literature. Methods & sample Databases concerning health, psychosocial, psychiatric publications as well as grey literature were explored systematically (Pubmed, Embase, Ebscohost, Proquest, Scopus, and Web of Science). Studies reporting quantitative and qualitative data of adult transgenders combined with RTW outcomes are eligible for inclusion. Titles and abstracts will be independently screened by two reviewers. Agreement between the two independent reviewers will be assessed using Cohen’s Kappa statistic. Disagreement of full-text evaluations of the remaining records will be resolved by consulting a third reviewer. Data extraction will be performed in accordance to Cochrane collaboration checklist. Methodological quality will be assessed simultaneously by using the QualSyst tool for quantitative and qualitative research. The GRADE approach will be applied for an overall rating of the body of evidence. The PRISMA guidelines shall be used to report. A registration of this systematic review in the PROSPERO database is ongoing. Results Database searches identified 12201 records, whereby after deduplication 8888 records remained. Based on the first Yogyakarta principles we applied an exclusion of publications before 2006, which resulted in 6872 records for screening. Full review results are expected by summer 2019. Conclusion & recommendations To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate RTW in the trans* patients. This systematic review will serve as a foundation for a mixed methods project examining the barriers/facilitators of RTW in trans*employees and to provide preventive tools for tailored reintegration in service of occupational physicians and enterprises.