Pre-injury job characteristics and return to work among injured workers in South Korea: differences by socio-demographic and injury-related characteristics.

PURPOSE: This study examined the effect of pre-injury job characteristics on the odds of RTW outcomes for specific socio-demographic and injury-related characteristics among injured workers in South Korea.

METHODS: This study employed first-wave data for 1993 participants from the Panel Study of Workers' Compensation Insurance. A two-step cluster analysis was conducted to profile pre-injury job characteristics, including monthly wages, length of service, company size, contract type, and working hours. For each subsample selected by the characteristics of the independent variables, multinomial logistic regression analyses were performed to predict the odds ratio for being unemployed or working in a new firm versus returning to the pre-injury job, depending on cluster membership.

RESULTS: Two clusters were identified with pre-injury job characteristics. Workers in the unstable employment cluster were more likely than were workers in the stable employment cluster to be unemployed or work in a new firm rather than return to the pre-injury job; this held for all socio-demographic and injury-related characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed a need to develop differential RTW strategies for injured workers in insecure jobs at the time of injury. Implications for rehabilitation Policymakers and rehabilitation practitioners need to take into account not only socio-demographic or injury-related characteristics but also working conditions at the time of injury when designing return-to-work programs for injured workers in South Korea. Injured employees in poor working conditions are relatively more vulnerable in the return-to-work process and deserve special attention and supports from the Korean government. The Korean government needs to review return-to-work policies for injured workers in unstable employment environment in the context of employment relationships rather than individual characteristics.