The effect of an outpatient rehabilitation program on occupational cervicobrachial disorders

In a geographic area with 100,000 inhabitants between 16 and 65 years of age, all persons who during a 9-month period sought primary medical care for persistent work-related neck-shoulder complaints, were identified. They totaled 78 persons. Out of these, 33 patients belonging to one and the same primary health care district went through a rehabilitation and activation program which had been designed in cooperation with the social insurance office, the primary health care organization, and the occupational health service. The program extended over a period of 4–8 weeks including individual on-the-job training with gradual return to work. Persons from the other districts matching the same diagnostic criteria served as a control group. For each one of the patients, all cases of illness and all days they were on sick-leave were registered during 12 months starting when the person returned to work after the rehabilitation program (patients) or when the opening case of illness was closed (controls). Patients showed fewer total relapses. Furthermore, the total number of days lost through sick leave due to recurrences was lower among the subjects. The conclusion is that coordinated rehabilitation efforts can reduce the number of relapses. In a long-term view, an intervention like this can be expected to prevent cases of protracted illness and eventual retirement due to disability, which have been shown to be common effects of frequent relapses.