Abstract
BackgroundConsiderable indirect costs are incurred by time taken off work following accidental injuries. The aim of this study was to predict return to work following serious accidental injuries.Method121 severely injured patients were included in the study. Complete follow-up data were available for 85 patients. Two weeks post trauma (T1), patients rated their appraisal of the injury severity and their ability to cope with the injury and its job-related consequences. Time off work was assessed at one (T2) and three years (T3) post accident. The main outcome was the number of days of sick leave taken due to the accidental injury.ResultsThe patients' appraisals a) of the injury severity and b) of their coping abilities regarding the accidental injury and its job-related consequences were significant predictors of the number of sick-leave days taken. Injury severity (ISS), type of accident, age and gender did not contribute significantly to the prediction.ConclusionsReturn to work in the long term is best predicted by the patients' own appraisal of both their injury severity and the ability to cope with the accidental injury.
Highlights
Considerable indirect costs are incurred by time taken off work following accidental injuries
Return to work in the long term is best predicted by the patients’ own appraisal of both their injury severity and the ability to cope with the accidental injury
All the patients qualifying for the study had sustained accidental injuries that caused a life-threatening or critical condition requiring their referral to the intensive care unit (ICU)
Summary
Considerable indirect costs are incurred by time taken off work following accidental injuries. The aim of this study was to predict return to work following serious accidental injuries. Sick-leave following accidental injuries incurs considerable indirect costs and the amount of time lost from work is one of the most important measures of functional outcome of injuries [1], there are few studies on return to work after severe accidental injuries [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Return to work is predicted by injury related factors. Patients returning to work after injury had stronger internal health beliefs, i.e. they believed they had an influence on their health and experienced themselves as powerful [4]. In a prospective long term study on accidentally injured patients we
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