Factors influencing the return to work of patients after hip replacement and rehabilitation

Abstract

Objective: To determine the incidence of medical and sociocultural factors on the return to work of patients after hip replacement and rehabilitation treatment.

Design: Case review. Frequency and association of variables' analysis.

Setting: The rehabilitation unit of a general hospital in Oviedo (Spain). This setting is a part of an institutional referral center and is the only state-owned hospital that provides rehabilitation treatment for hospitalized patients from a rural and urban area of about 1,000,000 inhabitants.

Patients: 747 patients of both sexes, all of them working before receiving treatment, age range 18 to 64 years.

Main outcome measures: Relationship of several variables: age, sex, habitat, level of education, type of work, underlying illness, walking ability, pain, and type of social security versus return to work.

Results: At discharge, 25% of patients return to work. There is a significant association (p < .001) between return to work and any of the following variables: underlying illness, kind of work, walking ability, habitat, and educational level.

Conclusion: This physiopathology of symptoms and signs of the patients is not the unique indicator of whether a person will continue working after hip replacement and rehabilitation treatment. Extramedical factors, such as social status, kind of work, and cultural background, are very influential.