• Kevin Kei Ching Hung, Ling Yan Leung, Janice Hiu Hung Yeung, Tak Kan Wong, Tsz Ying Yiu, Yuk Ki Leung, Lily Po Shan Chan, John Kit Shing Wong, Melissa Po Shan Leung, William Bernard Goggins, ChanDavid Yuen ChungDYCDepartment of Surgery, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China., Chun Tat Lui, Wai Kuen Ng, Hiu Fai Ho, Chi Hung Cheng, Nai Kwong Cheung, and Colin Alexander Graham.
• Accident and Emergency Medicine Academic Unit, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
• Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg. 2022 Aug 1; 48 (4): 3287-3298.

PurposeTrauma remains a major cause of morbidity and disability worldwide; however, reliable data on the health status of an urban Asian population after injury are scarce. The aim was to evaluate 1-year post-trauma return to work (RTW) status in Hong Kong.MethodsThis was a prospective, multi-center cohort study involving four regional trauma centers from 2017 to 2019 in Hong Kong. Participants included adult patients entered into the trauma registry who were working or seeking employment at the time of injury. The primary outcome was the RTW status up to 1 year. The Extended Glasgow Outcome Scale, 12-item Short Form (SF-12) survey and EQ5D were also obtained during 1-, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month follow-ups. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used for analysis.ResultsSix hundred and seven of the 1115 (54%) recruited patients had RTW during the first year after injury. Lower physical requirements (p = 0.003, HR 1.51) in pre-injury job nature, higher educational levels (p < 0.001, HR 1.95), non-work-related injuries (p < 0.001, HR 1.85), shorter hospital length of stay (p = 0.007, HR 0.98), no requirement for surgery (p = 0.006, HR 1.34), and patients who could be discharged home (p = 0.006, HR 1.43) were associated with RTW within 12 months post-injury. In addition, 1-month outcomes including extended Glasgow Outcome Scale ≥ 6 (p = 0.001, HR 7.34), higher mean SF-12 physical component summary (p = 0.002, HR 1.02) and mental component summary (p < 0.001, HR 1.03), and higher EQ5D health index (p = 0.018, HR 2.14) were strongly associated with RTW.ConclusionsWe have identified factors associated with failure to RTW during the first year following in Hong Kong including socioeconomic factors, injury factors and treatment-related factors and 1-month outcomes. Future studies should focus on the interventions that can impact on RTW outcomes.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT03219424.© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany.

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