Patient motivation may play a key role in speed of return to work after TKA

Styron JF. JBJS. 2010. doi: 10.2106/JBJS.I.01317.

The results of a recently published prognostic level 1 study highlight the importance of motivation in predicting how fast patients will return to work after total knee arthroplasty.

Joseph F. Styron, PhD, and colleagues from Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University enrolled 172 adult patients in their study who were scheduled to undergo primary total knee arthroplasty. The patients completed a questionnaire that detailed their physical status, ability to do their jobs, physical demands of their jobs and other factors that could impact recovery. The investigators assessed the patients using the questionnaire preoperatively and at several time points until the patients reached 6-months follow-up. The investigators had final follow-up data for 162 patients, according to the study.

The investigators found that patients returned to work at a mean time of 8.9 weeks. In addition to discovering that patients who reported “a sense of urgency” to return to work did so in half the time that it took other patients, the investigators found that higher preoperative mental health, physical function and functional comorbidity index scores correlated with faster return to work. Women, the self-employed and those who had handicap accessible offices also had a faster return to work. Factors linked with a slower return included Workers’ Compensation, having less preoperative pain and jobs that required higher physical demands.