BACKGROUND Despite the magnitude of dizziness/vertigo in primary health care, prospective studies are scarce, and few studies have focused on vocational consequences. Using the International Classification of Primary Health Care (ICPC), GPs have two alternative diagnoses, H82 (vertiginous syndrome) and N17 (vertigo/dizziness), when issuing sickness certificates to these patients. AIM To asses...

BACKGROUND To identify the relationship between perceived environmental barriers and disability in community-dwelling elderly. METHODS Cross-sectional study in two community service centers in Tainan. We enrolled 200 community-dwelling residents, aged above 65 years, who had resided in the same community for at least 12 months. Basic activity of daily living (BADL) and instrumental activity o...

BACKGROUND Return to work (RTW) after long-term sick leave can be a long-lasting process where the individual may shift between work and receiving different social security benefits, as well as between part-time and full-time work. This is a challenge in the assessment of RTW outcomes after rehabilitation interventions. The aim of this study was to analyse the probability for RTW, and the proba...

BACKGROUND Medically Unexplained Symptoms (MUS) are frequently encountered in general practice. However, little is known whether MUS affects labor market participation. We investigated the prospective association between MUS at baseline and risk of long-term sickness absence (LTSA), unemployment, and disability pensioning in a 5-year-follow-up study. METHODS In the Danish Work Environment Coh...

This article examines how the Disability Living Allowance claim form, used in the United Kingdom to allocate £13 billion of disability benefits, translates and transforms disability and care. Twenty-two people with acquired brain injury and their main informal caregivers (n = 44) were video-recorded filling in the disability claim form. Participants disagreed on 26% of the questions, revealing ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Long-term outcome information after transient ischemic attack (TIA) and stroke is required to help plan and allocate care services. We evaluated the impact of TIA and stroke on disability and institutionalization over 5 years using data from a population-based study. METHODS Patients from a UK population-based cohort study (Oxford Vascular Study) were recruited from 200...

OBJECTIVE To determine the predictive value of social support on health related quality of life (HRQoL) in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. METHODS The sample is composed by 150 MS consecutive patients. We used the Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey to assess social support and the Health Status Questionnaire to assess HRQoL. For inferential analysis, we used the Multiple Linear Re...

OBJECTIVES To compare baseline sociodemographic characteristics in two rheumatoid arthritis (RA) cohorts enrolled 10 years apart, and to examine differences with respect to the general population. METHOD Clinical and sociodemographic data were collected in 320 early RA patients during 1996-98 (TIRA-1) and 467 patients in 2006-09 (TIRA-2). Multivariate logistic regression tests were performed ...

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