Clinical and social factors in rehabilitation of patients with chronic low back pain.

Abstract

Physical signs, medical history and social factors were analyzed and evaluated in 52 patients (17 women and 35 men) with chronic low back pain, in order to determine if any factors were predictive for return to work after rehabilitation. Factors discriminating between the working and sick-disabled groups were: Sex (only men returned to full time work), Duration of sick-leave (the older half of the study population exhibited a negative correlation between time on sick-leave and frequency of return to work), Reported need for analgesics (the working group reported less need of analgesics), Pain in the cervical and dorsal areas of the spine as well as in the lumbar region (less frequent in the working group), The patients' attitude to his own ADL-capacity (those who returned to full-time work were more positive), After work fatigue (less frequent in the working group).