Table 3

Sociodemographic characteristics and respondents' perceptions of how positive and negative encounters with healthcare professionals influenced their ability to return to work

Return to work was…
Positive encountersNegative encounters
All n, (%)…facilitated, n (%)…not influenced, n (%)…impeded, n (%)…not influenced, n (%)
Categorical variables590 (100)255 (100)258 (100)34 (100)221 (100)
Gender
 Male414 (70)178 (70)178 (69)25 (74)151 (68)
 Female176 (30)77 (30)80 (31)9 (26)70 (32)
Age
 23–59269 (46)138 (54)108 (42)21 (62)98 (44)
 60–67321 (54)117 (46)150 (58)13 (38)123 (56)
Country of birth
 Sweden491 (83)223 (87)218 (84)24 (71)187 (85)
 Other99 (17) 32 (13)40 (16)10 (29)34 (15)
Marital status
 Married316 (54)140 (55)136 (53)17 (50)122 (55)
 Unmarried150 (25)66 (26)69 (27)7 (21)56 (25)
 Divorced/widowed124 (21)49 (19)53 (21)10 (29)43 (19)
Income
 Low108 (18)25 (10)59 (23)10 (29)50 (23)
 Average297 (50)116 (45)138 (53)15 (44)118 (53)
 High185 (31)114 (45)61 (24)9 (26)53 (24)
Level of education
 Compulsory145 (25)68 (27)65 (25)5 (15)60 (15)
 High school345 (58)147 (58)148 (57)25 (74)121 (55)
 University100 (17)40 (16)45 (17)4 (12)40 (18)
  • The question read: ‘How have positive (negative) encounters from healthcare professionals affected your ability to return to work?’ There was one response option that read 1 ‘I have not been positively (negatively) encountered’. The other response options ranged from 2 ‘Impeded (facilitated) very much’ to 6 ‘Facilitated (impeded) very much’.