Psychosocial aspects of injured workers' returning to work (RTW) in Hong Kong.

Introduction: This study was designed to explore the psychosocial aspects of injured workers, their self-perceived capacity and how these factors influence their success in Return To Work (RTW).

Method: Seventy-five subjects were recruited from the Hong Kong Workers' Health Centre and were assessed on three occasions consisting of interviews and four self-rated instruments including the Chinese Lam's Assessment of Employment Readiness (C-LASER), the SF-36 health survey, the Chinese State Trait and the Anxiety Inventory (C-STAI).

Results: Results showed that the contemplation and pre-contemplation sub-scores of C-LASER appeared to be the determining factors in predicting subjects' return-to-work status. Subjects who were more "ready for action" (the Actioners) were found to have significantly higher confidence and advocacy in job seeking than the Pre-Contemplators. Their employment readiness was shown to be affected by psychosocial factors such as perceived functioning and bodily pain,

Discussion: From this study, the injured workers' employment readiness appeared to associate with their RTW outcomes. Further studies would be needed to find out how the employment readiness of injured workers could be enhanced.