Article

We investigated whether short-term versus long-term sick leave after orthopaedic
inpatient rehabilitation can be predicted by initial assessment information, the
clinical status at discharge, or whether the follow-up interval is crucial for
later sick leave. We examined 214 patients from an orthopaedic rehabilitation
hospital at admission, discharge and 1-year follow-up. Outcome measures included
disability, depression, self-efficacy, health status and attitudes towards work.
Later short-term versus long-term sick leave was not significantly predicted by
pretreatment and posttreatment scores. Surprisingly, both groups improved
comparably during treatment. The long-term sick leave group deteriorated on most
of the variables at follow-up, whereas the short-term sick leave group maintained
the improvements. Rehabilitation interventions should not only focus on inpatient
treatment but also on the follow-up interval to prevent relapses and maintain
success reached during treatment.

Langue : ANGLAIS