title: The effect of demographic and social factors on return to work of injured workers with musculoskeletal disorders.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This paper aims to explore the effects of demographic and social factors for those suffering from work-related injuries with musculoskeletal disorders and their employment status after discharge within three months.
  
  
  METHODS
  The employment status and compensation-related information was caught by adopting telephone follow up with the designated data collection questionnaire; other demographic characteristic and social factors were obtained by reviewing injured workers' original admission records.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total sixty-eight injured workers were involved with a 67.6% return to work rate. Time of hospitalization (t=2.34, p=0.02) and area of registered residence (x;(2)=8.37, p=0.02) significant differences were found between the return to work group and non-return to work group. The only predictor found by using Logistic Regression analysis was the length of hospitalization (OR=0.978, 95%CI: 0.959-0.998).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The shorter the length of hospitalization during the rehabilitation process, the greater the rate of return to work for those workers suffering from work-related injuries with musculoskeletal disorders.
authors.affiliation: The Guangzhou Work Injury Rehabilitation Hospital, Wenquan Town, Conghua, Guangzhou, China. xudeng2@163.com
authors.forename: Yanwen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Yatao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ouyang
authors.forename: Xiaoyuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Xunwen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Xiaoshan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000062:Accidents, Occupational; D000328:Adult; D002681:China; D003710:Demography; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000534:rehabilitation*