Article

OBJECTIVE: To describe the proportion of people with spinal cord injury who
returned to work 5 years after discharge from inpatient rehabilitation, and to
investigate whether return to work is related to wheelchair capacity at discharge
from inpatient rehabilitation. DESIGN: Multi-centre prospective cohort study.
SUBJECTS: A total of 103 participants with acute spinal cord injury at 8 Dutch
rehabilitation centres, specialized in the rehabilitation of spinal cord injury.
All participants were in paid employment before injury. METHODS: Main outcome
measure was return to work for at least 1 h per week. The independent variables
of wheelchair capacity were peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak), peak aerobic power
output (POpeak), and wheelchair skill scores (ability, performance time, and
physical strain). Possible confounders were age, gender, lesion level and lesion
completeness, and educational level. RESULTS: The proportion of participants who
returned to work was 44.7%. After correction for the confounders, POpeak
(p=0.028), ability score (p=0.022), performance time (p=0.019) and physical
strain score (p=0.038) were significantly associated with return to work. VO2peak
was not significantly associated with return to work. CONCLUSION: More than 40%
of the participants were able to return to paid work within 5 years after
discharge from inpatient rehabilitation. Return to work was related to wheelchair
capacity at discharge. It is recommended to train wheelchair capacity during
rehabilitation in the context of return to work, since the association with
return to work is another benefit of the training of wheelchair capacity in
addition to the improvement of mobility and functional independency.

Langue : ANGLAIS