The association of social functioning, social relationships and the receipt of compensation with time to return to work following unintentional injuries to victorian workers

Abstract

Purpose Understanding individual factors associated with return to work (RTW) post-injury is an important goal of compensation systems research. The aim of the present study was to determine factors associated with time to return to work following acute unintentional injuries. Methods A prospective cohort study was conducted in Victoria, Australia. The cohort comprised 133 persons who were employed at the time they were admitted to one of three study hospitals. Baseline health status data was obtained retrospectively at one-week post-injury and participants were further surveyed at 1, 6, 12, 26 and 52 weeks post-injury to measure recovery. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression ana..