Alternative approaches for measuring duration of work disability after low back injury based on administrative workers' compensation data

Recurrence of Low Back Pain: Definition-Sensitivity Analysis Using Administrative Data

“…Establishing how well administrative data relate to selfreported recurrence or number of days away from work ought to be a priority in health services research focusing on recurrence of medical conditions. 18,19 Furthermore, the focus on occupational LBP introduces a number of shortcomings specific to WC data. Actual work disability might not have been recorded if it had not exceeded the waiting period for indemnity benefits.…”

Length of Disability Prognosis in Acute Occupational Low Back Pain

“…This endpoint was chosen as the prognosis is quite poor for RTW after a year of disability, and indemnity payments are reasonably correlated with disability status within this timeframe, but less so afterwards. 25 Case Selection. Case selection was designed to assemble a representative cohort of cases with comparable acute low back conditions, initial periods of disability, similar jurisdictional laws about indemnity payments, and prognostic screening data completed within a similar time post injury.…”

Predictors of chronic disability in injured workers: A systematic literature synthesis

“…Different measures of lost workdays yield substantially different estimates of work disability duration [Krause et al, 1999], and studies that examined more than one outcome (e.g., identical measure assessed at different follow-up times, different variables assessed at the same follow-up interval) found that risk factors differed for the various outcomes. Thus, studies that use different outcome de®nitions are likely to yield inconsistent ®ndings concerning risk factors.…”

“…This is not a precise measure of return to work, and because it does not capture multiple episodes of temporary disability or time on permanent disability, it substantially underestimates the total duration of work disability compared to measures based on all wage replacement bene®ts [Krause et al, 1999]. Krause and colleagues [1999] conclude that the best measure of the duration of work disability is the total number of days compensated by all forms (e.g., temporary, permanent) of wage replacement bene®ts.…”