Factors affecting attainment of paid employment after lung transplantation

Who Returns to Work After Heart Transplantation?

“…Reliability and validity data for all instruments were supported and reported in previous studies. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]27 The Work History tool 27 developed for this study has 15 open-ended and 10-point rating questions to collect information on work-related items, such as employment status, including reasons for not being employed, how soon the patient returned to work after surgery, number of hours worked, occupation, physical demands of work, job stress, sources of financial aid, and length of time off work if unemployed.…”

“…Functional status was measured with the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) developed by Bergner et al 13,14 We used 110 relevant items to examine functional disability. Items were weighted (by the authors of the tool) according to the amount of disability.…”

“…3,4 Cicutto and colleagues found that lung transplant recipients who returned to gainful employment were younger, more educated, felt physically able to work, reported high health ratings, had encouragement from physicians, and had their previous job still available. 13 Likewise, in the liver transplant population, Thomas found patients who returned to work were younger, more educated, and less physically disabled. 10 Salyer et al, although not specifically addressing employment, documented several barriers that interfere with lifestyle behaviors.…”

“…4 -8 Several factors may prevent patients from returning to work after heart transplant surgery. Previous studies [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] have reported factors associated with return to work for kidney, heart, liver and lung transplant patients. Paris and colleagues documented factors to include age at time of transplant, education, length of disability, type and status of insurance, and the patients' perceived ability to work.…”

High local unemployment rates limit work after lung transplantation

“…[1][2][3] Although most transplant recipients are of working age and many desire to return to work, unemployment in this group is high and may be higher than among recipients of other solid organ transplants. [4][5][6][7] Returning to work has been associated with improved quality of life and clinical outcomes for solid organ transplant recipients. [6][7][8][9] Despite the benefits of returning to work, only a minority of LTx patients find work post-transplant.…”