Citation

Rhie J, Jeong I, Won JU. J. Korean Med. Sci. 2013; 28(11): 1581-1586.

Affiliation

Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Dankook University Medical Center, Cheonan, Korea.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Korean Academy of Medical Science)

DOI

10.3346/jkms.2013.28.11.1581

PMID

24265519

PMCID

PMC3835498

Abstract

This study examined the association between return-to-work and impairment type. Database of the [South] Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service was used to identify disabled persons; and return-to-work information was obtained from the Korea Employment Information Services database. The study participants were 79,328 persons who received Workers' compensation and who were confirmed as disabled during 2009-2011. Logistic regression was used to analyze the association between return-to-work and impairment type, adjusted by age, sex, impairment severity, pre-injury businesses size, and pre-injury occupational category. Compared to injuries of the upper limbs, the odds ratio of return-to-work was 0.63 (95% CI, 0.60-0.65) for injuries involving the lower limbs, 0.62 (95% CI, 0.59-0.66) for the spine, 0.75 (95% CI, 0.66-0.86) for the eyes, 0.98 (95% CI, 0.77-1.25) for the oral cavity, 0.44 (95% CI, 0.37-0.53) for the ears, 1.02 (95% CI, 0.83-1.25) for the figure, 0.75 (95% CI, 0.72-0.79) for pain, and 0.36 (95% CI, 0.32-0.41) for neuropsychiatric impairment. These findings indicate that impairment type influences return-to-work rates.

Language: en