[Whiplash in insurance medicine: lessons for physicians].

The number of employees applying for a labour disability benefit due to whiplash has gradually decreased during the last 25 years in the Netherlands. The total number of applicants seems to stabilise around 30% of the number around the turn of the century. This is surprising given that the professional standards for social insurance physicians emphasise the importance of rehabilitation, while courts hardly ever judge in favour of benefit claimants.

Inter-doctor variations in the assessment of functional incapacities by insurance physicians.

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the--largely unexplored--extent of systematic variation in the work disability assessment by Dutch insurance physicians (IPs) of employees on long-term sick leave, and to ascertain whether this variation was associated with the individual characteristics and opinions of IPs.

Methods: In March 2008 we conducted a survey among IPs on the basis of the 'Attitude--Social norm--self-Efficacy' (ASE) model. We used the ensuing data to form latent variables for the ASE constructs.

Can self-reported disability assessment behaviour of insurance physicians be explained? Applying the ASE model.

Background: Very little is known about the attitudes and views that might underlie and explain the variation in occupational disability assessment behaviour between insurance physicians. In an earlier study we presented an adjusted ASE model (Attitude, Social norm, Self-efficacy) to identify the determinants of the disability assessment behaviour among insurance physicians. The research question of this study is how Attitude, Social norm, Self-efficacy and Intention shape the behaviour that insurance physicians themselves report with regard to the process (Behaviour: process) and content of the assessment (Behaviour: assessment) while taking account of Knowledge and Barriers.

The development of instruments to measure the work disability assessment behaviour of insurance physicians.

Background: Variation in assessments is a universal given, and work disability assessments by insurance physicians are no exception. Little is known about the considerations and views of insurance physicians that may partly explain such variation. On the basis of the Attitude--Social norm--self Efficacy (ASE) model, we have developed measurement instruments for assessment behaviour and its determinants.