Fiona Cocker - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Fiona Cocker

Health Promotion Journal of Australia

Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health

Journal of occupational and environmental medicine, Jan 7, 2018

Determine if prolonged times taken to notify, file, adjudicate and start wage replacement for wor... more Determine if prolonged times taken to notify, file, adjudicate and start wage replacement for workers' compensation claims are associated with poorer return-to-work outcomes. Using 71,607 claims lodged 2007-12, logistic regression determined associations between time to claim filing, adjudication and payment and; i) socio-demographic/economic, occupational, and injury-related factors; and ii) 52 weeks of wage replacement (WR). Prolonged times for all processing steps were associated with increased odds of reaching 52 weeks of WR. Prolonged times in more than one step increased the odds of a long-term claim. Being female was the only variable consistently associated with each prolonged processing time. The predictive ability of prolonged times in claim lodgement and processing and compensation payments demonstrate that shorter claims management and adjudication times could improve return-to-work outcomes.

Addictive behaviors, 2018

Shame and guilt are closely related emotions with diverging implications for the development, and... more Shame and guilt are closely related emotions with diverging implications for the development, and potential treatment, of substance use disorders. Accumulating research indicates that a guilt-prone affect style buffers individuals against the development of problematic alcohol use, while shame-proneness appears to offer no protective function. However, little is known about the manner in which guilt-prone individuals avoid the experience of alcohol use-related harms. The present study aimed to extend the shame, guilt, and substance use literature by examining whether these two self-conscious affect styles are differentially related to the use of protective behavioral strategies which reduce the risk of harms during drinking episodes. Participants (N=281; female n=207) completed pen-and-paper measures of shame and guilt-proneness, level of alcohol use, and the habitual use of protective behavioral strategies during drinking episodes. Part-correlation analysis isolated shame-free guil...

Journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 2017

To evaluate absenteeism, presenteeism, and total lost productive time (LPT) associated with multi... more To evaluate absenteeism, presenteeism, and total lost productive time (LPT) associated with multimorbidity. Cross-sectional data from 3228 state-government employees from Tasmania were collected in 2013. The validated measures of absenteeism, presenteeism, and LPT were obtained from employees' self-reported data over a 28-day period. Analyses were stratified by sex. Negative binomial models were used to estimate the associations between multimorbidity and LPT. The average health-related total LPT was 1.2 (standard deviation [SD] = 2.4) and 1.7 (SD = 3.5) days for men and women with multimorbidity, respectively. Women (rate ratio [RR] = 2.9, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.8 to 4.9) and men (RR = 4.4, 95%CI 3.0 to 6.2) with 4+ chronic conditions were significantly more likely to report LPT compared with those without any chronic conditions. We found multimorbidity is of concern within the workforce, with a positive association of multimorbidity and LPT observed, and significant di...

Applied health economics and health policy, Jan 30, 2017

The economic burden of multimorbidity is considerable. This review analyzed the methods of cost-o... more The economic burden of multimorbidity is considerable. This review analyzed the methods of cost-of-illness (COI) studies and summarized the economic outcomes of multimorbidity. A systematic review (2000-2016) was performed, which was registered with Prospero, reported according to PRISMA, and used a quality checklist adapted for COI studies. The inclusion criteria were peer-reviewed COI studies on multimorbidity, whereas the exclusion criterion was studies focusing on an index disease. Extracted data included the definition, measure, and prevalence of multimorbidity; the number of included health conditions; the age of study population; the variables used in the COI methodology; the percentage of multimorbidity vs. total costs; and the average costs per capita. Among the 26 included articles, 14 defined multimorbidity as a simple count of 2 or more conditions. Methodologies used to derive the costs were markedly different. Given different healthcare systems, OOP payments of multimor...

Journal of occupational and environmental medicine, Jan 6, 2017

The aim of this study was to understand the patterns of health care service utilization in employ... more The aim of this study was to understand the patterns of health care service utilization in employees with multimorbidity. Data were obtained from the 2011 to 2012 cross-sectional Australian National Health Survey. Past-month health care service utilization was collected for each chronic condition from a pre-specified list. Descriptive, logistic, and Poisson regression analyses were used. The data were weighted to produce nationally representative estimates. Multimorbid employees with arthritis had higher adjusted arthritis-specific general practitioner (GP) visit rates [rate ratio (RR) = 1.7, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 1.1 to 2.2, P < 0.001] than employees with arthritis alone. Similarly, multimorbid employees with cardiovascular disease (CVD) had higher adjusted CVD-specific specialist visit rates (RR = 1.6, 95% CI = 1.1 to 2.5, P < 0.05) and 2.5 times (95% CI = 1.5 to 4.0, P < 0.001) more CVD-specific other health professional visits than employees with CVD alone....

International journal of environmental research and public health, Jan 22, 2016

Compassion fatigue (CF) is stress resulting from exposure to a traumatized individual. CF has bee... more Compassion fatigue (CF) is stress resulting from exposure to a traumatized individual. CF has been described as the convergence of secondary traumatic stress (STS) and cumulative burnout (BO), a state of physical and mental exhaustion caused by a depleted ability to cope with one's everyday environment. Professionals regularly exposed to the traumatic experiences of the people they service, such as healthcare, emergency and community service workers, are particularly susceptible to developing CF. This can impact standards of patient care, relationships with colleagues, or lead to more serious mental health conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety or depression. A systematic review of the effectiveness of interventions to reduce CF in healthcare, emergency and community service workers was conducted. Thirteen relevant studies were identified, the majority of which were conducted on nurses (n = 10). Three included studies focused on community service worker...

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 2017

We conducted a meta-review to determine the reporting quality of user-centered digital interventi... more We conducted a meta-review to determine the reporting quality of user-centered digital interventions for the prevention and management of cardiometabolic conditions. Using predetermined inclusion criteria, systematic reviews published between 2010 and 2015 were identified from 3 databases. To assess whether current evidence is sufficient to inform wider uptake and implementation of digital health programs, we assessed the quality of reporting of research findings using (1) endorsement of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, (2) a quality assessment framework (eg, Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool), and (3) 8 parameters of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials of Electronic and Mobile HEalth Applications and onLine TeleHealth (CONSORT-eHEALTH) guidelines (developed in 2010). Of the 33 systematic reviews covering social media, Web-based programs, mobile health programs, and composite modalities, 6 reported using the recommended PRISMA guidelines. Seven did not report using a quality assessment framework. Applying the CONSORT-EHEALTH guidelines, reporting was of mild to moderate strength. To our knowledge, this is the first meta-review to provide a comprehensive analysis of the quality of reporting of research findings for a range of digital health interventions. Our findings suggest that the evidence base and quality of reporting in this rapidly developing field needs significant improvement in order to inform wider implementation and uptake. The inconsistent quality of reporting of digital health interventions for cardiometabolic outcomes may be a critical impediment to real-world implementation.

Handbook of Psychocardiology, 2015

Derailed Organizational Interventions for Stress and Well-Being, 2015

Key Issues in Mental Health, 2014

International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2015

BMC psychiatry, Jan 5, 2015

BackgroundHistorically, the focus of Non Communicable Disease (NCD) prevention and control has be... more BackgroundHistorically, the focus of Non Communicable Disease (NCD) prevention and control has been cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), cancer and chronic respiratory diseases. Collectively, these account for more deaths than any other NCDs. Despite recent calls to include the common mental disorders (CMDs) of depression and anxiety under the NCD umbrella, prevention and control of these CMDs remain largely separate and independent.DiscussionIn order to address this gap, we apply a framework recently proposed by the Centers for Disease Control with three overarching objectives: (1) to obtain better scientific information through surveillance, epidemiology, and prevention research; (2) to disseminate this information to appropriate audiences through communication and education; and (3) to translate this information into action through programs, policies, and systems. We conclude that a shared framework of this type is warranted, but also identify opportunit...

Australian family physician, 2013

Presenteeism - or working while ill - is commonly seen as just an economic indicator of disease b... more Presenteeism - or working while ill - is commonly seen as just an economic indicator of disease burden. Emerging evidence suggests it may best be conceptualised as a behaviour that has implications for the person and their employer, and one that can be clinically managed. This article presents an overview of the phenomenon of presenteeism in the workforce and its clinical implications. It focuses on evidence relevant to the management of day-to-day, short term decisions on whether an individual should go into work while sick or take a day or more of work absence. This discussion is separate to the management of compensation and return to work issues. Certain patients will be at risk of presenteeism, even when absence may be clinically advisable, due to personal or job characteristics. Presenteeism behaviour has potential positive and negative consequences for the patient's own health, their job performance and tenure and their workplace, and these should be weighed up when helpi...

PloS one, 2014

Working through a depressive illness can improve mental health but also carries risks and costs f... more Working through a depressive illness can improve mental health but also carries risks and costs from reduced concentration, fatigue, and poor on-the-job performance. However, evidence-based recommendations for managing work attendance decisions, which benefit individuals and employers, are lacking. Therefore, this study has compared the costs and health outcomes of short-term absenteeism versus working while ill ("presenteeism") amongst employed Australians reporting lifetime major depression. Cohort simulation using state-transition Markov models simulated movement of a hypothetical cohort of workers, reporting lifetime major depression, between health states over one- and five-years according to probabilities derived from a quality epidemiological data source and existing clinical literature. Model outcomes were health service and employment-related costs, and quality-adjusted-life-years (QALYs), captured for absenteeism relative to presenteeism, and stratified by occupa...