Discussion
Needs assessment, information about and claiming of prevention and rehabilitation services to maintain work ability must take place earlier. Many studies are examining interventions to address patients with a prevention or rehabilitation need at an earlier stage. Our study uses a pragmatic approach to investigate the effectiveness and acceptance of a screening tool to assess prevention and rehabilitation needs in primary care. The aim is to examine whether the "check-up 45 + " affects the proportion of applications for German Pension Insurance services through an early identification of needs of patients by a structured needs assessment, by providing information about German Pension Insurance services and a simplified application procedure.The authors of this protocol will write the final study publications. The use of professional writers is not intended. The findings of our study will be published in articles, conference presentations and in a final report. The study protocol was developed in accordance to the protocol template of SPIRIT (Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials) [39].