I am a regional manager for a large department store. We have many employees who hurt their backs on the job. Not very many of them seem to rehab and come back to us. This means we have to train new people and that takes time and money. Is this fairly typical in the work industry?

Work-related back pain accounts for billions of dollars in direct and indirect medical costs. Studies are ongoing trying to find what treatment is the best. Getting patients back to work is an important goal. Finding out why workers end up changing jobs or on disability is the focus of many research projects.

The Arizona State University Healthy Back Study (HBS) recently surveyed 1,831 workers who had filed Workers’ Compensation claims for occupational back pain. All participants in the study were employed by one of five businesses in 37 states.

Each worker was interviewed within one-month of filing a back injury claim. They were asked a series of questions about their level of satisfaction with care. The answers to the questions were analyzed to see what influences patient satisfaction during an episode of care for back pain. Everyone was contacted six months and one year later.

There may be many factors affecting how well people respond to rehab and how quickly they return to work (if they return at all). Some of the influences include level of satisfaction with health care for the injury. Patients who are very satisfied seem to return to work sooner and more often than those who are not satisfied with their care.

Other factors affecting recovery include socioeconomic status, work environment, injury and severity. Worker age, gender, and expectations about recovery don’t seem to be as important. Patients who receive by hands-on care by professionals such as a physical therapist or a chiropractor expressed a higher level of satisfaction and were more likely to return to work.