23 Exploring the concept inability to work fulltime in the context of work disability assessments (mental problems, neoplasms, and respiratory, nervous, and urogenital diseases), and to examine their experiences with the (in)ability to work fulltime. The researchers invited physicians from their own professional networks, and contacted most patient representatives through the websites of their organizations, or their professional networks. The authors approached participants by email and telephone to describe their own role, as well as the aim and context of the study. Data collection, interview content and procedure Between January and September of 2014, we conducted semi-structured interviews using open-ended questions. We developed an interview guide with topics and open-ended questions to aid the interviewers and to ensure comparability of the interviews, thereby increasing reliability. We tested this script with three insurance physicians, recruited from the researcher’s own network. Based on these try-out interviews the interview guide was finetuned, using more open questions. We chose to interview physicians and patient representatives to acquire data on (the assessment of) inability to work fulltime from the perspective of the key participants in the disability assessment interview. The final interview guide addressed the following major topics: 1) the concept of inability to work fulltime and its characteristics; 2) dimensions of inability to work fulltime; 3) indicators for measuring the dimensions of inability to work fulltime (signs and symptoms of the concept and its dimensions); and 4) methods to assess indicators of inability to work fulltime. Subtopics included: what is ‘normal ability to work fulltime’, or the maximum number of hours a person can work; disease specific aspects related to variability of inability to work fulltime; the best method to assess indicators of inability to work fulltime; and experience with assessing inability to work fulltime. To explore these topics more deeply, we asked further clarifying questions. Of the 19 interviews, 18 were conducted by two interviewers (HJB and senior researcher and insurance physician BC or research assistant JS [more information about the research team members can be found under Acknowledgements]); one interview was conducted by the first author only (HJB). We conducted all interviews in the participants’ first language (Dutch), during single sessions of 45–90 min; all were audio-recorded. We made no additional field notes. We interviewed most participants at their own preferred locations, and two by telephone; no other persons were present during the interviews. We transcribed all interviews verbatim. We did not present transcriptions to the participants for their comments, but presented and discussed our interpretations of the data at professional meetings with researchers, professionals, and policymakers in the field of work and health. 2
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