Introduction to the Work Ability Index - A Guide for Rehabilitation Practitioners

The purpose of this report is to introduce the Work Ability Index to a rehabilitation audience. As an indication of its popularity, (a) it is available in 26 languages; (b) it has been applied for more than twenty years and (c) from 1991 there are 388 records including “Work Ability Index” in PubMed. Each of the 10 questions in the assessment is introduced and by way of background some clinical data provided from a personal injury cohort. A summary of the data from 29 previous studies of 31,472 participants is provided and it indicated an overall mean of 38.94. Overall this mean would be categorised as a “good” work ability index. As expected, studies of rehabilitation or illness samples indicated “poor” work ability. The conceptual nature of work ability is reviewed and questions raised about the validity of the scoring of the assessment.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Dr James Athanasou specialises in the field of vocational rehabilitation. He was formerly an Associate Professor in Rehabilitation Counselling at the University of Sydney. He specialises in return-to-work following injury.