Vocational rehabilitation for enhancing return-to-work in workers with traumatic upper limb injuries

Occupational advice to help people return to work following lower limb arthroplasty: the OPAL intervention mapping study

BACKGROUND

Hip and knee replacements are regularly carried out for patients who work. There is little evidence about these patients' needs and the factors influencing their return to work. There is a paucity of guidance to help patients return to work after surgery and a need for structured occupational advice to enable them to return to work safely and effectively.

OBJECTIVES

To develop an occupational advice intervention to support early recovery to usual activities including work that is tailored to the requirements of patients undergoing hip or knee replacements. To test the acceptability, practicality and feasibility of this intervention within current care frameworks.

DESIGN

An intervention mapping approach was used to develop the intervention. The research methods employed were rapid evidence synthesis, qualitative interviews with patients and stakeholders, a prospective cohort study, a survey of clinical practice and a modified Delphi consensus process. The developed intervention was implemented and assessed during the final feasibility stage of the intervention mapping process.

SETTING

Orthopaedic departments in NHS secondary care.

PARTICIPANTS

Patients who were in work and intending to return to work following primary elective hip or knee replacement surgery, health-care professionals and employers.

INTERVENTIONS

Occupational advice intervention.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Development of an occupational advice intervention, fidelity of the developed intervention when delivered in a clinical setting, patient and clinician perspectives of the intervention and preliminary assessments of intervention effectiveness and cost.

RESULTS

A cohort study (154 patients), 110 stakeholder interviews, a survey of practice (152 respondents) and evidence synthesis provided the necessary information to develop the intervention. The intervention included information resources, a personalised return-to-work plan and co-ordination from the health-care team to support the delivery of 13 patient and 20 staff performance objectives. To support delivery, a range of tools (e.g. occupational checklists, patient workbooks and employer information), roles (e.g. return-to-work co-ordinator) and training resources were created. Feasibility was assessed for 21 of the 26 patients recruited from three NHS trusts. Adherence to the defined performance objectives was 75% for patient performance objectives and 74% for staff performance objectives. The intervention was generally well received, although the short time frame available for implementation and concurrent research evaluation led to some confusion among patients and those delivering the intervention regarding its purpose and the roles and responsibilities of key staff.

LIMITATIONS

Implementation and uptake of the intervention was not standardised and was limited by the study time frame. Evaluation of the intervention involved a small number of patients, which limited the ability to assess it.

CONCLUSIONS

The developed occupational advice intervention supports best practice. Evaluation demonstrated good rates of adherence against defined performance objectives. However, a number of operational and implementation issues require further attention.

FUTURE WORK

The intervention warrants a randomised controlled trial to assess its clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness to improve rates and timing of sustained return to work after surgery. This research should include the development of a robust implementation strategy to ensure that adoption is sustained.

STUDY REGISTRATION

Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN27426982 and PROSPERO CRD42016045235.

FUNDING

This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 24, No. 45. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.

Vocational rehabilitation for enhancing return-to-work in workers with traumatic upper limb injuries

BACKGROUND

Traumatic upper limb injury is a leading cause of work-related disability. After return-to-work (RTW), many survivors of injuries are able to regain a quality of life (QoL) comparable with the normal population. Since RTW plays an important role in economic productivity and regaining health-related QoL, enhancing RTW in workers with traumatic limb injuries is the primary goal of rehabilitation. Vocational rehabilitation has been commonly employed in the field of occupational safety and health to increase the number of injured people returning to the labour market, prevent illness, increase well-being, and reduce disability.

OBJECTIVES

To assess the effects of vocational rehabilitation programmes for enhancing RTW in workers with traumatic upper limb injuries.

SEARCH METHODS

This is an update of a Cochrane review previously published in 2013. We updated our searches of the following databases: the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL; 2017, Issue 9), MEDLINE (to 30 August 2017), EMBASE (to 3 September 2017), CINAHL (to 6 September 2017), and PsycINFO (to 6 September 2017), and we handsearched the references lists of relevant review articles.

SELECTION CRITERIA

We aimed to include all randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing vocational rehabilitation with an alternative (control) intervention such as standard rehabilitation, a limited form of the vocational rehabilitation intervention (such as advice on RTW, referral information, or liaison with employer), or waiting-list controls.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Two authors independently inspected abstracts, and we obtained full papers when necessary. When the two authors disagreed about the inclusion of a study, we resolved disagreements by discussion. A third author arbitrated when necessary.

MAIN RESULTS

Our updated search identified 466 citations. Based on assessments of their titles and abstracts, we decided to evaluate the full texts of five records; however, none met our inclusion criteria.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS

There is currently no high-quality evidence to support or refute the efficacy of vocational rehabilitation for enhancing RTW in workers with traumatic upper limb injuries. Since injured people in occupational settings frequently receive vocational rehabilitation with the aim of decreasing work disability, enhancing RTW, increasing productivity, and containing the welfare cost, further high-quality RCTs assessing the efficacy of vocational rehabilitation for workers with traumatic upper limb injury are needed to fill this gap in knowledge.

Evidence-Based Interventions for Increasing Work Participation for Persons With Various Disabilities

Title I of the Americans With Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination in employment; however, 26 years later, employment rates for persons with disabilities hover at 34%. This systematic review investigates the effectiveness of evidence-based interventions to increase employment for people with various disabilities. Forty-six articles met the inclusion criteria for evidence-based interventions. The majority of studies assessed interventions for persons with mental health disabilities. Strong evidence was found for ongoing support and work-related social skills training prior to and during competitive employment for persons with mental health disabilities. Moderate evidence supported simulation and use of assistive technology, especially apps for cueing and peer support to increase work participation for persons with intellectual disabilities, neurological/cognitive disabilities, and autism spectrum disorder. Many of the strategies to increase work participation were appropriate for occupational therapy intervention. Suggestions were made for research, specifically looking at more rigorous evaluation of strategies in the long term.

Patient-reported factors influencing return to work after joint replacement

BACKGROUND

An increasing number of patients in the working population are undergoing total hip and knee replacement for osteoarthritis and the timing and success of return to work (RTW) is becoming increasingly important as a measure of success for these patients. There is limited understanding of the patient variables that determine the ability to RTW.

AIMS

To explore the factors influencing RTW following hip and knee replacement from the patient's perspective.

METHODS

A cross-sectional population-based postal survey carried out with patients of working age after hip and knee replacement surgery in a UK teaching hospital. Free text comments were collected regarding the experiences of patients returning to work following hip and knee replacement. Qualitative thematic analysis was undertaken to identify the factors influencing RTW from the patient's perspective.

RESULTS

From the patients' perspective three key factors were identified that influenced RTW. Patients reported an improved physical and psychological performance at work after surgery in comparison to pre-operative functioning, although there was a lack of informed advice regarding RTW after surgery. Workplace support and adaptation of the job role enhanced the experience of RTW.

CONCLUSIONS

Return to work is influenced by a combination of patient, clinician and occupational factors. The relationship between each of these needs to be explored in greater depth through further qualitative work to gain a wider understanding of the variables influencing patients' RTW following hip and knee replacement.