Return to work after injury in Hong Kong: prospective multi-center cohort study

Trauma remains a major cause of morbidity and disability worldwide; however, reliable data on the health status of an urban Asian population after injury are scarce. The aim was to evaluate 1-year post-trauma return to work (RTW) status in Hong Kong.

This was a prospective, multi-center cohort study involving four regional trauma centers from 2017 to 2019 in Hong Kong. Participants included adult patients entered into the trauma registry who were working or seeking employment at the time of injury. The primary outcome was the RTW status up to 1 year. The Extended Glasgow Outcome Scale, 12-item Short Form (SF-12) survey and EQ5D were also obtained during 1-, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month follow-ups. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used for analysis.

Six hundred and seven of the 1115 (54%) recruited patients had RTW during the first year after injury. Lower physical requirements (p = 0.003, HR 1.51) in pre-injury job nature, higher educational levels (p < 0.001, HR 1.95), non-work-related injuries (p < 0.001, HR 1.85), shorter hospital length of stay (p = 0.007, HR 0.98), no requirement for surgery (p = 0.006, HR 1.34), and patients who could be discharged home (p = 0.006, HR 1.43) were associated with RTW within 12 months post-injury. In addition, 1-month outcomes including extended Glasgow Outcome Scale ≥ 6 (p = 0.001, HR 7.34), higher mean SF-12 physical component summary (p = 0.002, HR 1.02) and mental component summary (p < 0.001, HR 1.03), and higher EQ5D health index (p = 0.018, HR 2.14) were strongly associated with RTW.

We have identified factors associated with failure to RTW during the first year following in Hong Kong including socioeconomic factors, injury factors and treatment-related factors and 1-month outcomes. Future studies should focus on the interventions that can impact on RTW outcomes.

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT03219424.