Introduction
Pain, UC) reduced sickness, musculoskeletal disorders, UC, Musculoskeletal disorders, disability
MUSCULOSKELETAL DISORDER, MUSCULOSKELETAL DISORDERS
Musculoskeletal disorders are the main contributors to years lived with disability worldwide.One intervention recommended in vocational rehabilitation is motivational interviewing (MI).Another intervention to help workers with musculoskeletal disorders to RTW, was developed and tested in the Study of Work And Pain (SWAP) trial in the UK.Providing interventions to all workers on sick leave is extremely resource demanding, and may not be justified in a Norwegian context given that approximately 80% of the workers RTW during the first 8 weeks of sick leave.It is not known if the SWAP intervention could be effective when delivered as a stratified intervention, tailored according to risk for long-term sickness absence. Therefore, we aimed to assess if adding either MI or a stratified vocational advice intervention (SVAI) to usual case management (UC) reduced sickness absence days over 6 months, for workers with musculoskeletal disorders on sick leave for more than seven consecutive weeks. We conducted two independent comparisons:UC compared with UC+MI.UC compared with UC+SVAI.