Reducing the Incidence of Short-Term Disability: Testing the Effectiveness of an Absence Prediction and Prevention Intervention Using an Experimental Design

Objective:This multi-employer, prospective, randomized, controlled trial validated a quantitative model to identify employees at high risk of short-term disability (STD) and evaluated the impact of a health advocate nurse-led intervention on STD incidence. Methods:Following prospective randomization, the control group received usual and customary services while the intervention group received usual and customary plus additional services from Cigna.* Results:At the 12-month assessment, 16.8% of the intervention group had documented STD claims compared with 19.8% of the control group (P = 0.06). Duration of STD and return to work rate were not statistically different. Conclusion:While not statistically significant, these results suggest that the intervention for employees at high risk of STD achieves practical and clinical significance by achieving absolute and relative reductions in risk of STD of 3% and 15%, respectively.

目的：这项多雇主、前瞻性、随机、对照试验验证了一个定量模型，以识别短期残疾（STD）高风险员工，并评估了由健康倡导护士主导的干预措施对短期残疾发生率的影响。方法：经过前瞻性随机分组后，对照组接受常规服务，而干预组接受信诺公司提供的常规服务以及额外服务。结果：在12个月的评估中，干预组有16.8%有记录在案的短期残疾索赔，而对照组为19.8%（P = 0.06）。短期残疾持续时间和复工率在统计学上没有差异。结论：虽然在统计学上不显著，但这些结果表明，针对短期残疾高风险员工的干预措施通过使短期残疾风险分别绝对降低3%和相对降低15%，具有实际和临床意义。