Effects of work ability and health promoting interventions for women with musculoskeletal symptoms: A 9-month prospective study

Table 3 Changes in health-related factors. Within-group changes after ten weeks and nine months compared with baseline.

	Baseline	p 1	10-week follow-up	9-month follow-up	p 2	p 3
General health
1: Severity of symptoms (0–10) *
Self-efficacy group Ergonomic group	6 (3–9) 5 (0–8)	0.083	5 (3–7) 4 (1–10)	5 (1–10) 5 (2–10)	0.023 0.819	0.113 0.924
2: State of health (1–5)
Self-efficacy group Ergonomic group	3 (2–4) 4 (2–5)	0.224	3 (2–5) 4 (1–5)	4 (2–5) 4 (2–5)	0.265 0.793	0.097 0.782
3: Mental strain (1–5) *
Self-efficacy group Ergonomic group	3 (1–5) 3 (1–5)	0.455	3 (1–4) 3 (1–5)	2 (1–4) 2 (1–4)	0.776 0.297	0.070 0.169
Coping in relation to pain
1: Positive distraction (0–6)
Self-efficacy group Ergonomic group	3.5 (1.5–5.5) 2.5 (0–4.5)	0.082	3 (0–5) 3 (1.5–5)	3 (0–6) 3.5 (2.5–4.5)	0.681 0.059	0.134 0.002
2: Catastrophic thinking (0–6) *
Self-efficacy group Ergonomic group	3 (1–6) 2 (0–4.5)	0.051	2.5 (1–6) 2.5 (0–4.5)	3 (0.5–4.5) 2 (0–4.5)	0.482 0.352	0.237 0.784
3: Ignoring pain (0–6)
Self-efficacy group Ergonomic group	3 (0–5) 3.5 (1–5)	0.087	3.5 (1.5–6) 3.5 (1.5–5.5)	3.5 (1–4.5) 4.2 (1.5–5.5)	0.052 0.310	1.000 0.048
Self-efficacy in relation to pain
1: Control pain (0–6)
Self-efficacy group Ergonomic group	4 (0–5) 3 (2–6)	0.947	4 (2–5) 4 (3–6)	3.5 (0–5) 4 (2–6)	0.577 0.040	0.366 0.071
2: Reduce pain (0–6)
Self-efficacy group Ergonomic group	3 (1–5) 3 (2–6)	0.422	4 (2–6) 4 (3–5)	3 (1–6) 4 (2–6)	0.054 0.130	0.913 0.580

* High values represent a bad level for the items 'severity of symptoms', 'mental strain' and 'catastrophic thinking'.
A high value is good for all other items.
Abbreviations as in Table 2.

ISSN: 1471-2474