Time off Work after Herniorrhaphy

Seventy-four employed men aged between 18 and 64 years who underwent inguinal hernia repair in hospitals in Oxford, England, during the latter part of 1971 completed questionnaires giving details of their occupation and whether or not they were paid by their employer during illness and for how long. This information was supplemented by data from the hospital notes. With the patients' permission the dates of their return to work were supplied by the Department of Health and Social Security. The average time off work because of herniorrhaphy was 52 days. Age, social class, type of occupation, amount and duration of sick pay, previous medical history, presence of respiratory disease, smoking habits, grade of surgeon, post-operative complications in combination accounted for only 19% of the variance in time off work, with type of occupation and amount and duration of sick pay making the only statistically significant contributions. The heavier the job, the longer the time the employee took to return to work. The more the sick pay and the longer it lasted, the less time the man took off work. Although an investigation on a larger scale may help to clarify some of the deficiences in the data recorded, it is apparent that the factors which were mainly responsible for the variation in time off work after operation were not being measured Though there may be a place for linking social security and hospital data, this preliminary study suggests that the quality of data at present recorded will have to be improved before any worthwhile contribution to the investigation of morbidity and the factors involved in the duration of sickness absence can be made.