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Predicting Work Status for Patients in an Occupational Medicine Setting Who Report Back Pain
Karl Singer, MD
Exeter Family Medicine Associates Exeter, NH
Arch Fam Med. 1994;3(9):753.
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| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings. |
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In their article in the April issue of the ARCHIVES, Krousel-Wood et al1 use a complex group of patient rating scales to predict fitness for work for patients with back pain based on the self-reports of these patients. While the findings point out some items that are useful predictors, overall this study will not be of much use in my day-to-day practice. First, the population is atypical, with 87% of the patients being covered by workers' compensation for a work-related injury. Second, the rating scales are too long and would take an excessive amount of time to administer and analyze. Lastly, only about 50% of subjects filled out the surveys so there was a very high nonresponse rate. Hopefully the authors can refine and simplify their questionnaire and apply it in a more representative population so that it might be more useful for family physicians in practice.
. . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]
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