Reducing sick leave of Dutch vocational school students: adaptation of a sick leave protocol using the intervention mapping process

Marlou L. A. Kroon (), Jozien Bulthuis, Wico Mulder, Frederieke G. Schaafsma and Johannes R. Anema
Additional contact information
Marlou L. A. Kroon: University Medical Center Groningen
Jozien Bulthuis: VU University Medical Center
Wico Mulder: Public Health Service Amsterdam
Frederieke G. Schaafsma: VU University Medical Center
Johannes R. Anema: VU University Medical Center

International Journal of Public Health, 2016, vol. 61, issue 9, No 7, 1039-1047

Abstract: Abstract Objectives Since the extent of sick leave and the problems of vocational school students are relatively large, we aimed to tailor a sick leave protocol at Dutch lower secondary education schools to the particular context of vocational schools. Methods Four steps of the iterative process of Intervention Mapping (IM) to adapt this protocol were carried out: (1) performing a needs assessment and defining a program objective, (2) determining the performance and change objectives, (3) identifying theory-based methods and practical strategies and (4) developing a program plan. Interviews with students using structured questionnaires, in-depth interviews with relevant stakeholders, a literature research and, finally, a pilot implementation were carried out. Results A sick leave protocol was developed that was feasible and acceptable for all stakeholders. The main barriers for widespread implementation are time constraints in both monitoring and acting upon sick leave by school and youth health care. Conclusions The iterative process of IM has shown its merits in the adaptation of the manual ‘A quick return to school is much better’ to a sick leave protocol for vocational school students.

Keywords: Sick leave reduction; Vocational school students; Intervention mapping; Youth health care physicians; School care coordinators; Illegitimate absenteeism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00038-016-0840-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:ijphth:v:61:y:2016:i:9:d:10.1007_s00038-016-0840-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/00038

DOI: 10.1007/s00038-016-0840-x

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Thomas Kohlmann, Nino Künzli and Andrea Madarasova Geckova

More articles in International Journal of Public Health from Springer, Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().