The economic and public health benefits of improving return to work outcomes after workplace injury remain major goals for employers, injured workers and compensation administrators. A step to improving return to work outcomes is identifying which workers have the greatest risk of not being successful. While there has been considerable study in this area there has not been a bringing together of current knowledge, nor is there consensus regarding predictors of return to work. / The purpose of this Meta-Analytic review was to achieve the bringing together of current knowledge and to provide: greater understanding of predictive measures available, guide development of policy and procedures, increase usage of predictive measures as part of the service delivery model, progress the knowledge base about predictive measures, and renew interest in developing risk assessment tools and associated services to improve return to work outcomes for injured workers. / Eighty-four predictor variables were identified from thirty-four studies that researched return to work after workplace injury. The six most studied variables were then critically reviewed. The variables were age, sex, living arrangements, employment maintenance, delay to rehabilitation, and employment type. Due to the lack of statistical analysis, either undertaken or available in the literature, effect sizes and associated analysis was not undertaken. Based on the number of statistical findings, and on review of the articles, age, employment maintenance, and delay to rehabilitation demonstrated strong relationships with return to work. The variables of sex, living arrangements and employment type did not demonstrate such relationships. / While the current research brought together the current knowledge base the inability to quantitatively analyse previous results was a major limitation. It was recommended that ongoing research in this area ensures that analysis and publication of results provides information that would allow such secondary analysis in the future. It was also recommended that the current research focus on demographic variables be shifted to include a larger focus on prospective intervention based research. / Thesis (MRehabilitationCounselling)--University of South Australia, 2005.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/267268 |
| Creators | Hilton, Richard. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | copyright under review |
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