Influence of context in social participation of people with disabilities in Brazil.

Objective: To identify environmental and personal factors associated with social participation in adults with various diseases/health conditions residing in the urban areas of the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Region, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Methods: Individual characteristics, social participation, and perception of environmental barriers of 226 patients treated at a public rehabilitation referral service were evaluated. Regression analyses with hierarchical entry of data were performed to verify the association of personal and environmental factors with social participation.

Work Ability: using structural equation modeling to assess the effects of aging, health and work on the population of Brazilian municipal employees.

Background: The Work Ability Model has a holistic structure that incorporates individual characteristics, work-related factors and life outside of work. The model has been explored in the context of Finland but still needs to be applied in other countries.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between age, health, work and work ability in a sample of Brazilian municipal employees.

A qualitative study of workers with chronic pain in Brazil and its social consequences.

Chronic pain contributes towards less diversified participation centred on household activities, fewer social relationships and smaller number of recreational activities. The aim of the study was to further investigate the effects of chronic pain on participation, focusing on how workers deal with the experienced restrictions. Ten workers with chronic pain participated in the survey, which was conducted with qualitative interviews.

Disability associated with pain--a clinical approximation of the mediating effect of belief and attitudes.

Our objective was to test the hypothesis that pain beliefs are mediators of disability in a population of workers with chronic pain. A cross-sectional study composed of 115 workers with work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMD) whose symptoms appeared 6 months before the beginning of the study was conducted. Outcome measures included questionnaires on pain, pain beliefs, physical disability, and depression.

Work-related hand injuries: case analyses in a Brazilian rehabilitation service.

Purpose: Professionals who work with rehabilitation of the hand usually assess performance components as their main outcome measures. Intervention is aimed at normalization of deficits of these components, with the expectation that the integrity of the structures and functions of the body will revert to improvements in the client's functional performance. The objectives of this study were to describe changes in patients who received rehabilitation in a Brazilian public hospital after having suffered hand injuries due to workplace accidents, and to examine the relations between performance components and levels of functioning.