RETURN TO WORK AFTER MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTIO N - MEDICAL AND SOCIOPROFESSIONAL FACTORS

The aim of this study was to assess the influence of medical and socio professional factors on return to work after myocardial infarction. Th e authors studied a continuous series of 174 patients with an average age of 51.3 years, all of whom were active before their illness. The a verage follow-up period was 33 months. One hundred and thirty of the p atients (75 %) returned to work. The only clinical factors predictive of not returning to work were older age short exercise time and fall i n blood pressure on exercise. On the other hand, nearly all socioprofe ssional factors, social class, type of occupation, size of company, le ngth of employment in their company, physical stresses related to thei r occupation, were related to return to work. The average time before returning to work was 5.5 +/- 1 month. Though certain immediate criter ia of severity of infarction such as previous myocardial infarction or anterior wall infarction were related to a more delayed return to wor k. The cardiac status evaluated by complementary investigations (left Ventricular ejection fraction, exercise testing and Holter monitoring) was not related to the time before return to work. Of the socioprofes sional factors, only difficulties related to the patients' work (modif ication or change of job) were associated with a more delayed return t o work. Forty-four patients (33.8 %) returned to work after a change i n working hours (28 patients), the tasks involved (20 patients) or pos ition (7 patients). Only the lower socioprofessional classes, independ ent workers and extremes of age could benefit from these measures.