Research

Background: Rigorous evidence on factors affecting the prognosis of work-related soft-tissue injuries remains limited. Although shown to be important for a wide variety of clinical conditions, recovery expectations have rarely been assessed as prognostic factors for workers with soft-tissue injuries. We examined the pre-dictive role of various measures of recovery expectations among workers with injuries resulting in time off work. Methods: We identified a prospective cohort of 1566 injured workers shortly after they filed a claim for their injury with the Ontario Workers ’ Compensation Board (OWCB). They had soft-tissue injuries to the back or upper or lower extremities, had new, lost-time claims from May to November 1993 and were still off work at the time of the first interview. We interviewed participants by telephone within 3 weeks after the injury and measured their recovery expectations (perceptions re-garding progress, expected change in condition, expected time until return to usual activities and expectations regarding return to usual job) along with other