title: Vocational rehabilitation for enhancing return-to-work in workers with traumatic upper limb injuries.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Traumatic upper limb injury is a leading cause of work-related disability. After return-to-work (RTW), many survivors of injuries are able to regain a quality of life (QoL) comparable with the normal population. Since RTW plays an important role in economic productivity and regaining health-related QoL, enhancing RTW in workers with traumatic limb injuries is the primary goal of rehabilitation. Vocational rehabilitation has been adapted in the field of occupational safety and health to enhance the number of injured people returning to the labour market, prevent illness, increase well-being, and reduce disability.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the effects of vocational rehabilitation programs in enhancing RTW of workers with traumatic upper limb injuries.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched OSH UPDATE databases (CISDOC, HSELINE, International Bibliographic, NIOSHTIC, NIOSHTIC-2, RILOSH) (up to 10 December 2012), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (2012, Issue 11), MEDLINE through PubMed (up to 15 November 2012), EMBASE (up to 28 November 2012), CINAHL (up to 5 May 2013), PsycINFO (up to 7 December 2012), and handsearched the reference lists of relevant review articles.
  
  
  METHODS
  We aimed to include all randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing vocational rehabilitation with an alternative (control) intervention such as standard rehabilitation, an incomplete form of the vocational rehabilitation intervention (such as with limited advice on RTW, referral information, or liaison with employer), or waiting-list controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two authors independently inspected abstracts and we obtained full papers when necessary. When the two authors disagreed about the inclusion of a study, we resolved disagreements by discussion. A third author arbitrated when necessary.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our search identified 332 citations. Based on assessments of their titles and abstracts, we decided to evaluate the full texts of 15 citations. In the end, none of these 15 citations met our inclusion criteria.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is currently no high-level evidence to support or refute the efficacy of vocational rehabilitation in enhancing RTW in workers with traumatic upper limb injuries. Since vocational rehabilitation has frequently been provided to injured people in occupational settings with the aim of decreasing work disability, enhancing RTW, increasing productivity, and containing the welfare cost, further high-quality RCTs assessing the efficacy of vocational rehabilitation for workers with traumatic upper limb injury are needed to fill this gap in knowledge.
authors.affiliation: School of Gerontology Health Management, College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan, Taipei Medical University, No. 250 Wuxing Street, Taipei, Taiwan, 11031.
authors.forename: Wen-Hsuan
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Ching-Chi
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: Heng-Lien Daniel
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Lo
authors.forename: Ken N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.forename: Hung-Yi
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Chuang
mesh_terms: D001134:Arm Injuries / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006801:Humans; D016272:Occupational Health; D012050:Rehabilitation, Vocational; D062707:Return to Work