title: Change in the type of work of postoperative liver transplant patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Returning to work has been recognized as an indicator of functional recovery. Few studies have aimed to explore whether one's type of work changes after transplantation.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study aims to describe the change in types of work in liver transplant patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective and descriptive study was conducted at a medical center in northern Taiwan. The data were collected by a self-report questionnaire between July and September 2010. Descriptive statistics an correlational analysis were used to analyze the data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A convenience sample of 111 adult liver transplant patients was included in this study. Of the sample, 20 patients remained unemployed, 44 had a change in status by becoming unemployed (n=42) or employed (n=2), and 47 patients remained employed after transplantation. At the time of data collection, 49 (44.1%) liver transplant patients were gainfully employed, a rate that was lower than that of the pretransplantation stage (n=89, 80.2%). The number of workers engaged in manual labor decreased from 40 to 18 between pre- and posttransplantation. Of the 47 still-employed patients, 6 (12.8%) changed their occupation after transplantation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The rate of gainful employment after liver transplantation was low, and those patients who had done manual labor pretransplantation were no longer able to do this type of work and were unemployed. The still-employed patients who worked in management or were professionals did not change their type of work after transplantation; however, service and labor workers did change their type of work.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Chang Gung University, and Liver Research Center, Department of General Surgery, Chang Gung Medical Foundation-Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: L-C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Weng
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: H L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Y-W
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: W-C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009790:Occupations / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014478:Unemployment