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Psychosocial Aspects of Injured Workers’ Returning to Work (RTW) in Hong Kong

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Abstract

Introduction: This study was designed to explore the psychosocial aspects of injured workers, their self-perceived capacity and how these factors influence their success in Return To Work (RTW). Method: Seventy-five subjects were recruited from the Hong Kong Workers’ Health Centre and were assessed on three occasions consisting of interviews and four self-rated instruments including the Chinese Lam’s Assessment of Employment Readiness (C-LASER), the SF-36 health survey, the Chinese State Trait and the Anxiety Inventory (C-STAI). Results: Results showed that the contemplation and pre-contemplation sub-scores of C-LASER appeared to be the determining factors in predicting subjects’ return-to-work status. Subjects who were more “ready for action” (the Actioners) were found to have significantly higher confidence and advocacy in job seeking than the Pre-Contemplators. Their employment readiness was shown to be affected by psychosocial factors such as perceived functioning and bodily pain, Discussion: From this study, the injured workers’ employment readiness appeared to associate with their RTW outcomes. Further studies would be needed to find out how the employment readiness of injured workers could be enhanced.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Hong Kong Workers’ Health Centre for jointly collaboration of this study, Mr. Yanwen Xu and Mr. Jiaqi Li for their effort on data collection. We would also like to thank all the participants of this project. This study would not have been possible without their support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HK, China

    Cecilia WP Li-Tsang & Henky HK Chan

  2. Institute of Psychology, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA

    CS Lam

  3. Hong Kong Workers’ Health Centre, HK, China

    Karen YL Lo-Hui

  4. Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HK, China

    Cecilia WP Li-Tsang

  5. Ergonomics and Human Performance Laboratory, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, HK, China

    Chetwyn CH Chan

Authors
  1. Cecilia WP Li-Tsang
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  2. Henky HK Chan
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  3. CS Lam
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  4. Karen YL Lo-Hui
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  5. Chetwyn CH Chan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cecilia WP Li-Tsang.

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Li-Tsang, C.W., Chan, H.H., Lam, C. et al. Psychosocial Aspects of Injured Workers’ Returning to Work (RTW) in Hong Kong. J Occup Rehabil 17, 279–288 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-007-9075-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10926-007-9075-2

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