Elsevier

Resuscitation

Volume 128, July 2018, Pages 170-174
Resuscitation

Short paper
Work factors associated with return to work in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2018.05.021Get rights and content

Abstract

Introduction

Although the survival rate after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) has increased over time, little is known about the return to work of OHCA survivors. We aim to evaluate prevalence and factors associated with return to work (RTW) in OHCA survivors.

Patients and methods

All consecutive OHCA survivors aged 18–65 years and discharged alive from a Paris tertiary intensive care unit between 2000 and 2013 were included. Pre-hospital care, in-hospital care, and after-hospital discharge data, such as work description (work location, job classification, nature of the job) were compared relative to work status and RTW. Factors associated with RTW were evaluated using multivariable logistic regression.

Results

153 OHCA survivors were included in the analysis. Among them, 96 (62.8%) returned to work an average of 714 days after OHCA (SD 1031); mostly to the same job (n = 72, 75%). Six patients changed jobs (4%) and 12 reduced their activity (10.6%). Factors associated with RTW were younger age (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 3.64 [1.10; 12.02]), being managers and professionals, and service and sales workers (compared to technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, respectively aOR 3.43 [1.05; 11.22] and 4.69 [1.14; 19.37]), and workplace occurrence (aOR 11.72 [1.37; 99.93]).

Conclusion

Two thirds of OHCA survivors, in the present study, returned to work. Patients with a higher-level job, and with the arrest occurring in the workplace, were more likely to return to work. Further research should include more details of job contents, evolution, financial consequences, as well as prevention practices related to work location.

Section snippets

Methods

The design and inclusion criteria in the cohort have been described previously [9]. In brief, all consecutive OHCA patients of our intensive care unit between 2000 and 2013 were prospectively included. Among the survivors followed, only working-age patients (18–65 years old) who had a job when the cardiac arrest occurred were included in the present study. Data of pre- and in-hospital care were recorded according to the Utstein style [12]. In the present study, we focus on demographic data,

Results

Of 379 survivors followed, 153 were included in the study (mean follow-up 1643 days, standard deviation 1371, median 1268, interquartile range 525–2387 range 61–4967, Fig. 1). Most of them suffered OHCA after 2007 (n = 111, 73%). Mean time from collapse to start of CPR was 3.9 (standard deviation 4.55) min and mean time from CPR to ROSC was 13.7 (SD 10.53) min.

Ninety-six (96) /153 (62.8%) OHCA survivors returned to work an average of 714 (SD 1031) days after OHCA occurrence (median 241 days,

Discussion

In the present study, we found that about two-thirds of OHCA survivors of working age returned to work. Moreover, we observed a strong association between certain work factors, like workplace occurrence, and a high-position job, and the RTW of OHCA patients discharged alive from hospital.

Similar results were observed in a previously published study focusing on employment after therapeutic hypothermia based on 87 OHCA survivors: 65% of them returned to work, a rate similar to our study (62.8%) [

Authors contribution

All authors have participated in the conception and design of this study, or the acquisition of data, or the analysis and interpretation of the data, drafting of the article, or revising it critically for important intellectual content, and final approval of the version submitted.

Funding source

None for the study.

Conflict of interest

The authors are paid for their respective affiliation. In addition, Alexis Descatha received money for editing (Editor in chief of Archives des maladies professionnelles) from Elsevier Masson.

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Richard Carter for helping us to improve the language of this document.

References (21)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

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