Research on interventions improving psychological adjustment has suggested that sense of coherence (SOC) could be improved.
In the present study, we measured the impact of an intervention on the SOC among adults with first-episode depression. We also examined whether rehabilitation, depression, occupational stressors, life situation stressors and socio-demographic characteristics are associated with a change in the SOC.
Occupational health care clients were screened for depression using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and a structured clinical interview (the The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV: SCID-I). The participating subjects were randomized into a rehabilitation group (n = 134) and control group (n = 100) receiving treatment as usual. The Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC-13) was used at the baseline and in a 1-year follow-up to compare the change of the SOC between the groups.
The increase in the mean SOC score was statistically significant both in the rehabilitation group (54.91 compared with 62.85, P