TY - JOUR PY - 2018// TI - A systematic review and meta-analysis of return to work after mild Traumatic brain injury JO - Brain injury A1 - Bloom, Ben A1 - Thomas, Stephen A1 - Ahrensberg, Jette Møller A1 - Weaver, Rachel A1 - Fowler, Alex A1 - Bestwick, Jon A1 - Harris, Tim A1 - Pearse, Rupert SP - 1623 EP - 1636 VL - 32 IS - 13-14 N2 - OBJECTIVE: To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of return to work (RTW) times for adult patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).

METHODS: Six databases and six trials registries were searched. Inclusion: studies reporting RTW, > 30 patients, adults, with mTBI. Exclusion: final measurement RTW < 30 days after injury, first measurement > 1 year.

RESULTS: Of 978 records, 14 eligible studies were identified. Two included patients exclusively in paid employment pre-injury; four included paid employment, students, homemakers or other activities; seven included pre-injury occupational status described but unclear; one included patients whose pre-injury occupational status not described. Three reported average RTW, 12 reported proportions of patients RTW at pre-specified time-points (1 both). Average RTW times varied from 13 to 93 days. At 1 month the proportion of patients RTW (three pooled studies) was 0.56 (95% CI 0.30-0.79), at 6 months (six studies) 0.83 (0.74-0.89), at 12 months (seven studies) 0.89 (0.83-0.93).

CONCLUSION: More than half of patients with mTBI have returned to work by 1 month after injury, and more than 80% by 6 months. Most studies had poor internal validity. Reporting of outcomes in mTBI is variable, and this accounted for some of the heterogeneity found in this review.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0269-9052 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699052.2018.1532111 ID - ref1 ER -