Disability, sickness, and unemployment benefits among long-term sickness absentees five years before, during, and after a multidisciplinary medical assessment

Figures & data

Figure 1 Design of the study. Number of years and participating individuals before (t-5 to t-1), during (t0), and after (t1 to t5) a multidisciplinary medical assessment at the diagnostic center.

Table 1 Distribution of women and men by age, education, country of birth, and type of diagnosis at MMA (n = 1002)

	n	Men n = 370 %	Women n = 632 %	Total n = 1002 %	PChi^2
Age					0.056 (ns)
21–39	261	22	29	26
40–49	381	39	38	38
50–63	360	39	34	36
Education					0.079 (ns)
Elementary	406	44	38	41
High school	352	31	38	35
University	244	25	24	24
Country of birth					0.153 (ns)
Sweden	573	54	59	57
Other than Sweden	428	46	41	43
Diagnosis					0.004*
Somatic	266	22	29	27
Psychiatric	244	29	22	24
Somatic + Psych	467	47	47	47
Nonea	25	3	2	3

Notes:

a No diagnosis was assessed in 25 cases and no P-value was computed;

* Indicates significant results.

Abbreviations: MMA, multidisciplinary medical assessment; ns, not significant.

Table 2 Number of days on disability pension, sickness benefits, and unemployment related to sex, age, education, country of birth, and diagnosis

Y	Sex			Age				Education				Country of birth			Diagnosis
	W	M	P	<39	<49	<63	P	E	H	U	P	O	SW	P	S	P	SP	P
Disability pension
t-5	24	15	0.062	17	26	17	0.150	23	18	19	0.634	16	24	0.124	17	24	22	0.548
t-4	32	20	0.038	24	36	21	0.045	32	23	27	0.396	24	31	0.194	25	32	29	0.657
t-3	42	28	0.027	37	44	29	0.139	40	36	34	0.733	34	39	0.414	31	40	40	0.434
t-2	63	51	0.124	52	72	49	0.015	61	63	47	0.239	54	61	0.348	51	54	66	0.184
t-1	83	72	0.216	67	96	70	0.009	81	84	70	0.445	77	80	0.775	65	72	92	0.026
t0	111	94	0.061	90	115	104	0.078	112	104	93	0.234	105	104	0.889	84	105	119	0.005
t1	192	187	0.596	151	192	218	<0.001	208	182	173	0.008	207	178	0.002	147	197	217	<0.001
t2	244	239	0.613	199	241	276	<0.001	263	233	223	0.001	267	224	<0.001	205	255	263	<0.001
t3	264	261	0.778	217	264	295	<0.001	279	256	246	0.015	284	248	<0.001	236	274	279	0.001
t4	268	265	0.715	230	269	295	<0.001	285	258	250	0.014	286	252	0.001	237	278	282	0.001
t5	277	264	0.268	232	276	301	<0.001	292	262	250	0.006	293	255	0.001	244	280	288	0.005
Sickness benefits
t-5	68	71	0.698	62	79	64	0.099	69	72	66	0.828	68	69	0.881	63	60	79	0.059
t-4	92	95	0.808	85	111	80	0.003	80	106	96	0.022	83	100	0.041	79	77	110	0.001
t-3	122	127	0.617	108	136	121	0.050	114	127	133	0.242	105	137	0.001	111	104	140	0.002
t-2	150	163	0.193	152	153	159	0.775	148	157	163	0.452	148	161	0.162	135	159	164	0.030
t-1	189	208	0.064	201	190	199	0.597	187	199	207	0.251	195	197	0.849	185	211	194	0.136
t0	211	230	0.053	225	215	215	0.656	213	218	226	0.582	223	214	0.339	227	226	208	0.176
t1	122	118	0.722	139	126	101	0.002	112	124	129	0.274	120	121	0.924	149	115	104	<0.001
t2	60	58	0.784	80	62	42	<0.001	54	64	64	0.383	55	63	0.316	76	55	47	0.005
t3	30	27	0.508	40	30	19	0.016	30	30	25	0.747	27	30	0.512	32	26	22	0.293
t4	19	14	0.273	17	24	9	0.016	17	19	14	0.734	15	18	0.529	22	12	15	0.285
t5	18	14	0.458	18	21	10	0.212	13	17	22	0.401	15	18	0.595	26	8	14	0.035
Unemployment benefits
t-5	57	80	0.003	78	75	48	0.002	61	73	63	0.338	73	61	0.093	60	75	65	0.343
t-4	52	70	0.019	62	70	45	0.009	60	62	52	0.503	69	51	0.014	60	68	53	0.226
t-3	49	64	0.036	51	70	41	0.002	55	56	51	0.846	72	42	<0.001	57	64	48	0.206
t-2	38	49	0.085	36	54	32	0.005	45	40	39	0.694	54	33	0.001	44	46	39	0.559
t-1	28	26	0.603	24	34	22	0.067	30	24	26	0.539	29	26	0.453	35	21	26	0.113
t0	16	16	0.982	12	19	15	0.361	18	13	16	0.533	14	17	0.495	20	13	14	0.321
t1	20	18	0.608	23	22	15	0.237	21	16	22	0.499	13	24	0.007	24	17	17	0.342
t2	18	24	0.167	23	28	11	0.004	20	18	24	0.584	15	24	0.046	25	15	21	0.283
t3	17	27	0.049	25	31	6	<0.001	15	24	24	0.213	19	21	0.726	24	20	18	0.578
t4	20	22	0.731	29	24	10	0.018	13	24	28	0.069	15	25	0.078	29	22	14	0.074
t5	21	15	0.282	27	24	6	0.008	12	27	18	0.074	12	24	0.049	35	13	10	0.001

Notes: The average per person per year, 5–1 years (Y) before (t-5 to t-1) multidisciplinary medical assessment (MMA), during (t0) and after MMA (t1 to t5), related to sex (W, women; M, men), age at MMA (<39 = 21–39, <49 = 40–49, <63 = 50–63), education (E, elementary; H, high school; U, university), country of birth (O, other than Sweden; SW, Sweden), diagnosis (S, somatic; P, psychiatric; SP, somatic and psychiatric); no diagnosis was assessed in 25 individuals. ANOVA, P-value. F-values, and df were computed but are not presented in the table. P-values in bold type indicate significant results.

Figure 2 Number of benefit days based on the average value per person and year on unemployment benefit, sickness benefit, disability pension, 5 to 1 years before multidisciplinary medical assessment (MMA) (t-5 to t-1), and after MMA (t1 to t5) for individuals diagnosed in the period 1998–2007.