Work-Related Medical Rehabilitation (WMR) and Outcome Quality in the view of Rehabilitants
Results from the Rehab-QM-Outcome-Study II (Requamo II)
Background:
The primary objectives of the Rehabilitation-QM-Outcome-Study II (Requamo II study) are to examine the effectiveness of inpatient treatment and to develop an empirically based outcome index for quality-oriented allocation management. This paper focuses on aspects of medical-professional oriented rehabilitation (MBOR) especially from the perspective of Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs).
Methods:
The study includes self-assessments of the rehabilitants (1-point follow-up survey 1 year after rehabilitation), data from the Rehabilitation Statistics Database (RSD) as well as quality indicators of the facilities from the external Quality Assurance of the German Pension Insurance.
Sample:
The initial sample includes N = 15871 rehabilitants of the German Pension Insurances Baden-Wuerttemberg (n = 7219), Brunswick-Hanover (n = 5300) and Northern Bavaria (n = 3352), who were treated at n = 41 affiliated clinics in the first half of 2017. The catamnestic survey involved n = 7870 rehabilitants (response rate 51 percent). Characteristics of the sample: 61 percent male, average age 54 years (SD = 8), 55 percent completed secondary general school, average duration of rehabilitation 3.6 weeks (SD = 1.0); indication groups: 39 percent orthopaedics, 16 percent cardiology, 14 percent oncology, 10 percent psychosomatic medicine. The sample is largely representative of the insured persons selected for the study.
Results:
The return-to-work rate for the group as a whole is between 79 percent (time rate) and 85 percent (cumulative time rate). The mean patient satisfaction (ZUF8) is M = 25.1 (SD = 4.9). The occupational focus of rehabilitation is predominantly evaluated positively (M = 59 quality points), although there is a wide variation (SD = 25.5). The benefit of rehabilitation for work and occupation is seen somewhat more critically (M = 55 quality points, SD = 23.7). The pre-post effect strengths of the scales recorded are between ES = 0.39 and ES = 0.72. Regression analyses point, among other things, to the importance of the MBOR focus of rehabilitation perceived by rehabilitants.
