Aim: The working age of European employees is rising. This significantly increases the risk of developing a health problem during active working years and occupational rehabilitation is becoming increasingly important. Current developments in the field are characterised by cost pressure, staff shortages and an increasing number of new demands in a changing labour market (e.g. Work 4.0, new forms of work and employment contracts, e.g. as a result of processes of digitalisation and globalisation). The aim of this study is to analyse similarities and differences across the rehabilitation processes for people of working age in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Method: The rehabilitation systems were characterised in terms of their processes and legal frameworks based on the experiences of the authors, a selective literature research in PubMED and Google Scholar. A subsequent indicator-based analysis enabled the quantitative comparability of relevant criteria and country-specific recommendations were derived accordingly.