Issue:

Work-related musculoskeletal conditions are some of the most burdensome health conditions in Canada in terms of personal, societal and economic costs. Various types of rehabilitation are available, but it is not known what type of treatment is best for injured workers with different types of injuries and individual characteristics. The purpose of this project is to develop a model and simple computer program to help categorize injured workers according to likelihood of success with various types of rehablitation.

Objectives:

Our primary research objective is:
1) To develop a statistical triage/classification model for identifying the most appropriate rehabilitation intervention for claimants.

Secondary objectives include:
1) Describe and characterize claimants admitted to various types of rehabilitation programs. This will enable identification of normative values for key self-report measures (i.e. SF-36) for the population of injured workers undergoing rehabilitation.
2) Evaluation of the psychometric properties of the new measures implemented within the WCB-Alberta system (including construct and predictive validity).
3) Evaluation of a hypothetical risk factor-based intervention classification model for low back pain

Anticipated Results:

This project aims to address WCB-Alberta’s research priority of obtaining optimal return-to-work outcomes through effective rehabilitation for claimants with musculoskeletal conditions. The expected outcome is a triage/classification model capable of identifying the most appropriate rehabilitation service for individual injured workers.

Investigators:

Douglas Gross (University of Alberta)