FACTORS INFLUENCING THE RETURN TO WORK OF PATIENTS AFTER HIP-REPLACEMENT AND REHABILITATION

Objective: To determine the incidence of medical and sociocultural fac tors on the return to work of patients after hip replacement and rehab ilitation treatment. Design: Case review. Frequency and association of variables' analysis. Setting: The rehabilitation unit of a general ho spital in Oviedo (Spain). This setting is a part of an institutional r eferral center and is the only state-owned hospital that provides reha bilitation treatment for hospitalized patients from a rural and urban area of about 1,000,000 inhabitants. Patients: 747 patients of both se xes, all of them working before receiving treatment, age range 18 to 6 4 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 wo rk. Results: At discharge, 25% of patients return to work. There is a significant association (p < .001) between return to work and any of t he following variables: underlying illness, kind of work, walking abil ity, habitat, and educational level. Conclusion: The physiopathology o f symptoms and signs of the patients is not the unique indicator of wh ether a person will continue working after hip replacement and rehabil itation treatment. Extramedical factors, such as social status, kind o f work, and cultural background, are very influential. (C) 1996 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation