Factors Associated with Return to Work Postinjury: Can the Modified Rankin Scale be Used to Predict Return to Work?

Abstract

The ability to return to work (RTW) postinjury is one of the primary goals of rehabilitation. The modified Rankin Scale (mRS) is a validated simple scale used to assess the functional status of stroke patients during rehabilitation. We sought to determine the applicability of mRS in predicting RTW postinjury in a general trauma population. The trauma registry was queried for patients, aged 18 to 65 years, discharged from 2012 to 2013. A telephone interview for each patient included questions about employment status and physical ability to determine the mRS. Patients who had RTW postinjury were compared with those who had not (nRTW). Two hundred and thirty-four patients met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 171 (72.5%) patients RTW and 63 (26.7%) did nRTW. Patients who did nRTW were significantly older, had longer length of stay and higher rates of in-hospital complications. Multivariate analysis revealed that older patients were less likely to RTW (odds ratio = 0.961, P = 0.011) and patients with a modified Rankin score ≤2 were 15 times more likely to RTW (odds ratio = 14.932, P < 0.001). In conclusion, an mRS ≤2 was independently associated with a high likelihood of returning to work postinjury. This is the first study that shows applicability of the mRS for predicting RTW postinjury in a trauma population.

Mortality and return to work in patients transported by emergency ambulance after involvement in a traffic accident

“…Most patients had the capability to return to work within 1 year after their traffic accident. This finding is in line with a RTW rate of 73.1% in patients discharged from hospital after trauma-related injuries [2,9,26]. Present study also included non-survivors, and has the advantage of being conductedona population scale, where even patients with a low socioeconomic status and poor connection to the work force, due to the free health care system, are included.…”

“…Employment data for analysis of RTW was collected from the Danish National Labor Market Authority [9]. From this database, we were able to identify if patients were on any kind of social benefit on a week-to-week basis, both before the accident and until 1 year following the event.…”

“…Return to work (RTW) may be considered as having the capability to continue functioning in society as the individual had prior to an event such as a traffic accident. Accordingly, it has previously been described as a marker of favorable function in studies on trauma, cardiac arrest and heart failure [6][7][8][9][10].…”

Long-Term Effects of Psychological Symptoms after Occupational Injury on Return to Work: A 6-Year Follow-Up

“…Concerning the rates of return to work for work-related injury and non-work-related injury, the rates of return to work within 2 years after non-work-related injury ranged from 52% to 87% [15,18,27,28], but the rates of return to work within 2 years after work-related injury ranged from 31% to 79%, which were relatively lower [15,16,18,29,30]. A study was conducted in New Zealand which reported that, compared to workers with non-work-related injuries, those with work-related injuries had a higher risk of absence from work at 12 months post injury (adjusted RR = 1.37; 95% CI: 1.10–1.70) [15].…”

Association between prehospital time and outcome of trauma patients in 4 Asian countries: A cross-national, multicenter cohort study

“…MRS was initially used as an index of functional outcome in patients with stroke [ 27 ]. The scale was further applied to measure the disability caused by TBI or general trauma [ 28 – 31 ]. No significant disability, slight disability, or moderate disability (MRS 0–3) were defined as favorable functional outcomes, and moderately severe disability, severe disability, and death (MRS 4–6) were categorized as poor functional outcomes [ 32 ].…”