Predicting Return to Work in a Heterogeneous Sample of Recently Injured Workers Using the Brief ÖMPSQ-SF

Purpose (1) to examine the ability of the orebro Musculoskeletal Pain Screening Questionnaire-short version (oMPSQ-SF) to predict time to return to pre-injury work duties (PID) following a work-related soft tissue injury (regardless of body location); and (2) to examine the appropriateness of 50/100 as a suitable cut-off score for case identification. Methods Injured workers (IW) from six public hospitals in Sydney, Australia, who had taken medically-sanctioned time off work due to their injury, were recruited by insurance case managers within 5-15 days of their injury. Eligible participants (N=213 in total) were administered the oMPSQ-SF over the telephone by the case manager. For objective (1) Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to predict days to return to PID using the oMPSQ-SF. For objective (2) receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to determine the oMPSQ-SF total score that optimises sensitivity and specificity in detecting whether or not participants had returned to PID within 2-7 weeks. Results The total oMPSQ-SF score significantly predicted number of days to return to PID, such that for every 1-point increase in the total oMPSQ-SF score the predicted chance of returning to work reduced by 4% (i.e., hazard ratio=0.96), p