[Follow-up rehabilitation, what does it accomplish? A statistical view]

The numbers of in-patient rehabilitation procedures immediately following the post-acute stage, i.e. of the Anschlussheilbehandlungen AHB, have been steadily increasing over the last few years. Their share in the total number of general rehabilitation measures has meanwhile risen to almost 10 percent. The pension insurance carriers' fulfillment of their legal task of maintaining, or improving, the earning capacity of the insured, is verified on appropriate data. The present study covers those insured of the LVA Baden, the workers' pension insurance administration for the region of Baden, who had completed an AHB measure in the three years 1982-1984. Results obtained show that 60-70 percent of the participants in such an AHB measure subsequently returned to employment. Pensioning occurred most frequently in myocardial infarction patients, i.e. in 40 percent of all cases, and least frequently in patients with musculoskelettal disorders, i.e. in 25 percent. The pension insurance administrations have undoubtedly chosen a very appropriate route in introducing the AHB measure. It will, on behalf of the patients, be necessary and useful not to end the rehabilitative efforts on the day of discharge. Provision of follow-up care should be included in the AHB approach.