Department of Physical Therapy Faculty Articles
Employer, physical therapist, and employee outcomes in the management of work-related upper extremity disorders.
Publication Title
Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation
ISSN
1053-0487
Publication Date
12-2002
Keywords
Adult, Cohort Studies, Cumulative Trauma Disorders, Disability Evaluation, Employment, Follow-Up Studies, Health Status Indicators, Interprofessional Relations, Middle Aged, Musculoskeletal Diseases, Occupational Diseases, Outcome Assessment (Health Care), Physical Therapy Modalities, Probability, Registries, Rehabilitation, Vocational, Risk Assessment, Sensitivity and Specificity, Severity of Illness Index, Treatment Outcome, Upper Extremity, Workers' Compensation
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among employer, provider, and patient outcome measures and how they are related to clinical factors and other occupation-related factors. Data were obtained from a New England workplace physical therapy (PT) clinic. Successful outcomes were defined as remaining-on/returning-to preinjury job (employer); achieving PT goals (provider); and increases in the SF-36 scale scores (patient). Variation in outcomes was explored across injury regions (shoulder, elbow, wrist/hand), work categories, number of visits, and length of PT care. Employer and provider outcomes are moderately correlated (phi coefficient = 0.51). Subjects demonstrated significant improvements in the SF-36 physical functioning and bodily pain scores after physical therapy intervention. Patients with elbow disorders needed more PT care and did not improve in the SF-36 role physical domain compared to shoulder and wrist/hand groups (p < 0.05). Our results describe the relationship between outcome measures from different perspectives and the influence from other contributing factors. The impact of workplace injury management and the selection of outcome measures warrant continued study.
DOI
10.1023/A:1020222623882
Volume
12
Issue
4
First Page
257
Last Page
267
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences
NSUWorks Citation
Cheng, M. Samuel; Amick, Benjamin C.; Watkins, Mary P.; and Rhea, Catherine D., "Employer, physical therapist, and employee outcomes in the management of work-related upper extremity disorders." (2002). Department of Physical Therapy Faculty Articles. 85.
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hpd_pt_facarticles/85
