Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24218034›Full record

ArticleJournal of occupational rehabilitation2014

Trends in sickness certification of injured workers by general practitioners in Victoria, Australia.

Rasa Ruseckaite, Alex Collie, Megan Bohensky, Bianca Brijnath, Agnieszka Kosny, Danielle Mazza

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Article in Journal of occupational rehabilitation, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Rasa RuseckaiteInstitute for Safety Compensation and Recovery Research, Monash University, Level 11, 499 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, VIC, 3004, Australia, rasa.ruseckaite@monash.edu.
Alex Collie
Megan Bohensky
Bianca Brijnath
Agnieszka Kosny
Danielle Mazza

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundGeneral practitioners (GPs) play a critical role in facilitating injured workers return to work via their ability to certify capacity to return to employment. However, little is known about the sickness certification patterns of GPs in the context of workers' compensation claims.

aimTo determine if GPs' sickness certification behaviour has changed between 2003 and 2010 in Victoria, Australia.

methodRetrospective population-based cohort study of all injured workers with an accepted compensation claim. Sickness certification rates per 1,000 working population per annum were calculated. General regression models adjusted for workers' age and annual claim number were fitted to summarize changes in count and duration (expressed as incidence rate ratios or IRRs) of unfit for work (UFW) versus alternate duties (ALT) certificates within six categories of work-related injury and disease.

results92,134 UFW and 28,293 ALT certificates were identified. A significant decrease in the unadjusted annual certification rates per 1,000 working population was observed. However, after adjusting for the annual number of claims and age, the IRRs of certificates increased over time. The rate of injuries and IRRs of certificates varied across affliction categories, IRRs being higher in mental health conditions in women than in men (IRR: 0.40, 95 % CI 0.38-0.41 vs. IRR: 0.17, 95 % CI 0.16-0.18). The duration of certificates remained stable, with the ALT being longer than UFW certificates in all claimants.

conclusionOur findings indicate that GPs in Victoria issue an increasing number of UFW sickness certificates each year. Further research is required to investigate the reasons for such practises.

Indexed as

General PractitionersSick LeaveAdultAustraliaCohort StudiesFemaleHumansMaleOccupational DiseasesOccupational InjuriesRetrospective StudiesReturn to WorkSex DistributionWork Capacity EvaluationWorkers' Compensation

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.