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ia ct VOccupational hand injuries are an economic burden for any community. About 2 % of all employees in Denmark attend a casualty department annually with an occupa-tional hand injury (Skov, 1994), and are then off work for an average of 7 days (Edwards, 1975; Jørgensen et al., 1987). A short time off work is not only an advantage from an economic point of view but also because a quick return to work is often the best form of rehabilitation after a hand injury (Kasdan and June, 1993). Efforts to limit the number of hand injuries and the time off work are therefore indicated. Besides carrying out the necessary surgery to the hand, doctors can advise patients about the best time to return to work, talk with those who might have psycho-logical problems, treat impairment symptoms, and per-haps change some other factors that lead to an increased time off work. However, our influence on the time off work is limited if none of these factors influence the period of sick leave, or are only covariates for the severity of the injuries or work-related factors. The purpose of this study was to analyse the impact of several factors on the start and duration of time off work among patients with occupational hand injuries, in order to identify prognostic indicators and assess the rel-ative importance of factors that the doctor can influence during treatment. PATIENTS AND METHODS All patients with occupational hand injuries who attended the casualty department at Odense University Hospital in the first 6 months of 1991 were included i