Journal of occupational rehabilitation
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The study objectives were to translate and adapt the Work Role Functioning Questionnaire (WRFQ) into the Brazilian Portuguese language and evaluate its reliability in patients experiencing musculoskeletal disorders. ⋯ The data showed that the cross-cultural adaptation process was successful and the adapted instrument demonstrated psychometric properties making it reliable to use in Brazilian culture.
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Successful management of workers on sick leave due to low back pain by the general physician and physiotherapist depends on reliable prognostic information on the course of low back pain and work resumption. ⋯ Knowledge of the predictive value of these indicators by physicians and physiotherapists will help to identify subgroups of patients and will thus enhance clinical decision-making.
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Every year many workers are excluded from work because of a work disability attributable to a musculoskeletal disorder (MSD). Factors associated with the development and persistence of the work disability can be related to the worker, work environment, compensation policies, healthcare system and insurance system. Workers' understanding/representations of their disability are associated with coping behaviors aimed at helping them adapt to or solve their health problem. A representation is a complex, organized entity incorporating thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes regarding a particular subject. Representations have been studied in anthropology, sociology and psychology since the 1960s, but often in a compartmentalized way. These representations provide an important key to understanding what motivates workers during rehabilitation and the return-to-work process. To build upon disciplinary knowledge and better understand workers' efforts to cope with their persistent disability, this article therefore aims to pool the different knowledge available on the illness representation concept, from the fields of anthropology, sociology and psychology in order to gain a better understanding of its application in the MSD context. ⋯ Bridging the gap between these disciplines will help us achieve a new level of knowledge that will, by taking social interactions into account, enhance understanding of workers' representations, and the behaviors they adopt to manage their MSD-related disability.
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Work related upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) result in substantial disability, and expense. Identifying workers or jobs with high risk can trigger intervention before workers are injured or the condition worsens. ⋯ The QuickDASH may be useful for identifying jobs or workers with increased risk for upper extremity MSDs. It may provide an efficient health surveillance screening tool useful for targeting early workplace intervention for prevention of upper extremity MSD problems.
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Pain related fear and pain intensity have been identified as factors negatively influencing Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) performances in patients with CLBP. Conflicting results have been reported in the literature. The objective of this study was to analyze the relationships between pain intensity and pain-related fear on the one hand, and performances during an FCE on the other hand in two samples of patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP). ⋯ The relation between pain and pain related fear and FCE performance is weak or non-existent in patients with CLBP.