title: Employment after liver transplantation: a review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Return to productive employment is often an important milestone in the recovery and rehabilitation process after liver transplantation (OLT). This literature review identifies factors associated with employment in patients who underwent OLT.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched PubMed for articles that addressed the various factors affecting employment after OLT.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The studies demonstrated improvement in the quality of life and examined factors that predicted whether patients would return to work after OLT. Demographic variable associated with posttransplant employment included young age, male sex, college degree, Caucasian race, and pretransplant employment. Patients with alcohol-related liver disease had a significantly lower rate of employment than did those with other etiologies of liver disease. Recipients who were employed after transplantation had a significantly better posttransplant functional status than did those who were not employed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Economic pressures are increasing the expectation that patients who undergo successful OLT will return to work. Thus, transplant teams need to have a better understanding of posttransplant work outcomes for this vulnerable population, and greater attention must be paid to the full social rehabilitation of transplant recipients. Specific interventions for OLT recipients should be designed to evaluate and change their health perceptions and encourage their return to work.
authors.affiliation: Division of Abdominal Transplantation, Department of Medicine, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, California; Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, California. Electronic address: ahuda@stanfordmed.org.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Huda
authors.affiliation: Institute for Health and Aging, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Newcomer
authors.affiliation: Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Harrington
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, California.
authors.forename: E B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Keeffe
authors.affiliation: Division of Abdominal Transplantation, Department of Medicine, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, California.
authors.forename: C O
authors.initials: CO
authors.lastname: Esquivel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000379:methods / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D062707:Return to Work; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors