Page 150 - The value of total hip and knee arthroplasties for patients

Chapter 8
In the review by our own group, factors related to work status after THA and TKA included sociodemographic, health and job characteristics.6
For the appropriate timing of interventions aiming to foster return to work, insight into the course of work disability after THA and TKA is needed. Given the lack of knowledge on the time to return to work after joint arthroplasties, the aim of the present study was to describe the work status and the duration until return to work after THA and TKA. Moreover, characteristics of patients who did and did not return to work were compared.
Methods
Study design
This study on return to work was part of a prospective cohort study on the outcomes of THA and TKA performed at the Department of Orthopedics of the Alrijne Hospital (former Rijnland Hospital), the Netherlands, from October 2010 to September 2013 (inclusion of patients was done until September 2012).The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the local hospital Review Board of the Alrijne Hospital, Leiderdorp in the Netherlands (registration number 10/07), which is attached to the Medical Research Ethics Committee of the Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands. Of all patients, written informed consent to participate in the study was obtained. Funding for the present study on return to work was received from the Anna Fonds, NOREF (Dutch Association Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation) and the Dutch Arthritis Association LRR.
Patients and recruitment
The prospective cohort study aimed to include all consecutive patients undergoing a primaryTHA orTKA because of osteoarthritis, aged 18 years or older, able to read and understand Dutch and being mentally and physically able to complete questionnaires. Excluded were patients with revision of aTHA orTKA,undergoing a hemi-arthroplasty and undergoing aTHA orTKA because of tumor or rheumatoid arthritis.
One day preoperatively,before being admitted to the hospital,the treating orthopedic surgeon provided oral and written information on the study to all eligible patients. For the present study on return to work, only the data from patients under the
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