Musculoskeletal disorders are a large and heterogeneous group of disorders affecting joints, bone and soft tissues. The most common diseases include osteoarthritis and inflammatory diseases, osteoporosis, neck and back pain, bursitis, tendonitis and fibromyalgia. Many of the diseases are long lasting or recurrent, have an unclear aetiology and often there is no known curable treatment. Musculoskeletal disorders are the single leading cause of disability worldwide and lead to large economic burdens on individuals and society, especially in high income countries. In Norway they are the main cause of productivity loss, disability benefits and sickness absence (accounting for 34-35% of all sick leave) and also generate large health care expenditures.
The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) is a key constituent for return to work in Norway. One intervention frequently used by NAV is Motivational Interviewing (MI). MI is a person-centred counselling style for addressing ambivalence about change and has been suggested as a method to facilitate return to work for sick-listed people. MI was developed by William Miller and Stephen Rollnick who defined it as ‘a collaborative, goal-oriented style of communication with particular attention to the language of change. It is designed to strengthen personal motivation for and commitment to a specific goal by eliciting and exploring the person’s own reasons for change within an atmosphere of acceptance and compassion’.
Few studies have investigated the effect of MI on return to work for people on sick leave. As MI is a method frequently used by NAV caseworkers in charge of following up sick-listed people with musculoskeletal disorders, we need more information regarding the feasibility of delivering MI in this context. It is important to know how people with musculoskeletal disorders experience MI and what effect MI has on return to work for these individuals. It takes time to develop the communication skills and internalising the underlying spirit of MI. Lack of training, confidence and support in performing MI is commonly identified as challenges by practitioners. Knowledge is needed about how the counsellors who use MI, experience MI training, how confident they feel in performing MI, and if they identify any barriers or benefits when performing MI in this context. The use of MI to facilitate return to work for people with musculoskeletal disorders is a new area of research, and an overview of the study field is needed in order to define future research priorities. Therefore we aim to perform a systematic mapping review to map and synthesize the empirical research on the use of motivational interviewing as a method to facilitate return to work for people with musculoskeletal disorders. The objective of the review is to provide an overview of the current scope of research and identify research gaps.
Review question: What research on Motivational Interviewing as a method to facilitate return to work for individuals who are sick-listed due to musculoskeletal disorders exists, and what are the results of such research?
We will report in accordance with the PRISMA-ScR reporting guideline. The guidelines in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions will be followed when defining the review question, searching for studies, selecting studies, and collating data. We will also follow the methodological steps for mapping reviews proposed by Arksey and O’Malley elaborated on by Levac and colleagues’: 1. Identifying the research question, 2. Identifying relevant studies, 3. Selecting studies, 4. Charting the data, 5. Collating, summarising and reporting the results.
