Work Performance Among Workers without Disabilities after Industrial Accidents: A Longitudinal Study

Industrial accidents are work-related accidents and these accidents can result in disability. However, if workers receive appropriate treatment after an accident, they often recover without disability. Most of them return to their daily lives and work. When they return to work, they are expected to perform at the same level asbefore the accident.

This study was to identify the factors affecting the performance of workers resuming work without disability after industrial accidents.

This study was designed as a longitudinal study. Among workers who completed their industrial accident care, 2000 stratified random samples were investigated through a cohort survey by the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service, Labor Welfare Research Institute. The analysis of this study was conducted using data from 264 subjects without disabilities selected from among 2000 subjects. This study analyzed the data of the following variables: age, gender, education, marital status, health status before an industrial accident, occupational classification, claim duration, chronic disease, work performance, current health status, daily life satisfaction, self-esteem, and self-efficacy of the subjects.

The current health status, having a chronic disease, daily life satisfaction,overall life, and claim duration of less than 3 months accounted for 39.9% influence on work performance (F = 42.972, p ≤ 0.001), and the current health status influenced work performance the most.

It is important to support the workers so they can accomplish their work without failing. A system should be established to manage workers' health and chronic diseases. This may reduce health-threatening risks and prevent further industrial accidents and, could improve the work performance of workers resuming work after an industrial accident.