Table 4 Percentages and odds ratios (OR) with 95 % confidence intervals (CI) for physicians experiencing five sickness certification assessment tasks as very or fairly problematic. Stratified by clinical settings, using physicians working in internal medicine (n = 1749) as reference group. The ORs were adjusted for continuous age
|  | Found it very or fairly problematic to … | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|  | … assess whether a patient’s functioning is reduced? | … assess whether the reduced functioning is due to disease/injury? | … assess the degree to which the reduced functioning limits a patient’s work capacity? | … make a long-term prognosis about the future work capacity of patients on sick leave? | … assess the optimum duration and degree of sickness absence? | |||||
| Â | % | OR (95Â % CI) | % | OR (95Â % CI) | % | OR (95Â % CI) | % | OR (95Â % CI) | % | OR (95Â % CI) |
Internal medicine | 44.4 | 1 | 33.9 | 1 | 54.3 | 1 | 53.9 | 1 | 49.3 | 1 |
Orthopaedics | 30.7 | 0.59 (0.49–0.70) | 21.8 | 0.58 (0.48–0.70) | 52.3 | 1.01 (0.85–1.19) | 54.6 | 1.11 (0.94–1.32) | 43.2 | 0.84 (0.71–1.00) |
Primary healthcare | 67.5 | 3.05 (2.71–3.44) | 57.1 | 3.01 (2.66–3.40) | 76.9 | 3.44 (3.03–3.89) | 73.2 | 2.75 (2.44–3.11) | 64.3 | 2.19 (1.94–2.46) |
Occupational health service | 25.2 | 0.66 (0.50–0.86) | 20.4 | 0.77 (0.58–1.03) | 31.2 | 0.65 (0.50–0.84) | 35.0 | 0.73 (0.57–0.94) | 26.6 | 0.61 (0.46–0.79) |
Rehabilitation | 24.0 | 0.46 (0.30–0.71) | 17.4 | 0.47 (0.29–0.77) | 35.2 | 0.55 (0.37–0.81) | 58.4 | 1.45 (1.00–2.11) | 30.4 | 0.53 (0.36–0.79) |
Pain management | 41.1 | 1.25 (0.72–2.16) | 35.7 | 1.53 (0.87–2.68) | 53.6 | 1.49 (0.87–2.57) | 57.4 | 1.67 (0.96–2.91) | 45.5 | 1.27 (0.74–2.20) |
Oncology | 26.7 | 0.49 (0.38–0.64) | 19.8 | 0.51 (0.39–0.69) | 44.1 | 0.72 (0.57–0.92) | 48.7 | 0.88 (0.69–1.11) | 29.2 | 0.45 (0.35–0.58) |
Psychiatry | 49.4 | 1.42 (1.21–1.67) | 41.2 | 1.58 (1.33–1.86) | 59.0 | 1.46 (1.24–1.72) | 67.9 | 2.14 (1.81–2.54) | 50.0 | 1.21 (1.03–1.42) |
Rheumatology | 50.0 | 1.49 (1.09–2.04) | 42.9 | 1.73 (1.26–2.39) | 64.4 | 1.90 (1.37–2.64) | 62.8 | 1.74 (1.26–2.40) | 54.7 | 1.51 (1.10–2.07) |
Neurology | 46.4 | 1.12 (0.85–1.46) | 31.8 | 0.93 (0.69–1.24) | 67.5 | 1.84 (1.38–2.45) | 60.2 | 1.34 (1.02–1.76) | 54.7 | 1.28 (0.97–1.68) |
Surgery | 27.5 | 0.47 (0.40–0.55) | 20.7 | 0.51 (0.43–0.60) | 41.8 | 0.60 (0.52–0.70) | 38.3 | 0.53 (0.45–0.61) | 34.4 | 0.53 (0.46–0.62) |
Gynaecology | 34.4 | 0.72 (0.61–0.86) | 26.7 | 0.78 (0.64–0.93) | 49.4 | 0.92 (0.78–1.09) | 29.2 | 0.38 (0.32–0.45) | 37.1 | 0.67 (0.56–0.79) |
Infectious diseases | 33.3 | 0.62 (0.48–0.80) | 24.7 | 0.64 (0.48–0.84) | 47.9 | 0.77 (0.60–0.98) | 38.3 | 0.52 (0.41–0.67) | 38.6 | 0.64 (0.50–0.82) |
Dermatology | 27.9 | 0.55 (0.39–0.79) | 24.4 | 0.72 (0.50–1.05) | 42.9 | 0.75 (0.54–1.04) | 44.6 | 0.80 (0.58–1.10) | 42.9 | 0.91 (0.65–1.25) |
Others | 29.6 | 0.56 (0.47–0.66) | 22.0 | 0.59 (0.49–0.70) | 37.8 | 0.55 (0.46–0.64) | 36.7 | 0.53 (0.45–0.62) | 32.8 | 0.53 (0.45–0.63) |
Administration | 42.6 | 1.25 (0.74–2.11) | 32.3 | 1.23 (0.71–2.13) | 52.5 | 1.34 (0.79–2.25) | 43.5 | 0.89 (0.53–1.50) | 40.3 | 0.96 (0.57–1.62) |