title: Work status and disability trajectories over 12 months after injury among workers in New Zealand.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe work and disability trajectories over 12 months following injury among workers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Workers injured at work or elsewhere (n=2626) were sourced from the Prospective Outcomes of Injury Study, a longitudinal cohort study in New Zealand, with the primary objective of identifying factors associated with disability following injury. Work and disability status was assessed at 3- and 12-months post injury. The measure of disability was the brief WHODAS II 12-item instrument. Participants were dichotomised into 'disability' or 'no disability' groups based on whether their WHODAS score was greater than, or equal to, 10. In terms of 12-month work status, there are 16 different scenarios. These were grouped into 4 categories: sustained work (SW), delayed return to work (RTW), non-sustained RTW, and sustained off-work.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We had complete information for 1975 workers. The largest group (68%) was SW, 32% of which had disability at either time point. The second largest group consisted of 17% of workers who were classified as delayed RTW, 76% of whom were disabled at either time point. Among the non-sustained RTW group (7%), 52% had disability at either time point. Of the sustained off-work group (8%), 80% were disabled at either 3- or 12-months.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although return to work is a useful provider performance indicator of injury compensation and rehabilitation it is inadequate from a wider societal perspective and needs to be complemented by other important outcome measures such as disability status.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Langley
authors.forename: Rebbecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lilley
authors.forename: Ari
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Samaranayaka
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Social Services, College of Health, Massey University, Private Bag 11-222, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand. s.l.derrett@massey.ac.nz.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Derrett
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009520:New Zealand / Q000453:epidemiology; D060051:Occupational Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014937:Work / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014942:Workers' Compensation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult