Returning to work after heart transplantation

This study was designed to identify the determinants of postoperative work status among 47 heart transplantation patients at the University of Arizona Medical Center and to focus attention on those actions or policies that increase the probability that a patient will return to work within 6 months after transplantation. Issues regarding work status, disability, and early retirement have become increasingly salient. Case study methods were employed to assign each of the patients to one of four categories, which together form a typology of postoperative work status. Analysis of the patients identified four major variables of work status: age, length of disability before transplantation, control over working conditions including job redefinition/discrimination, and type of health insurance including cost of medication. Although these variables are interdependent, each also has an independent effect on postoperative outcome. The study concludes that although age and length of disability before transplantation cannot be directly affected, both control over working conditions and types of insurance are amenable to intervention.