Ekberg and Wildhagen (1996) found that long-term sickness absence is associated with worse ratings in quality of life after 1-year and that pain did not diminish during the follow-up year. Information on the severity and impact of the diseases is important for decision-making VS-4718 in preventive policy. Moreover, the incidence rate, the severity

and the impact of a disease can provide arguments when deciding for which diseases preventive activities should be financed. In general, registries of Protein Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor occupational diseases do not provide information on the severity or impact of the diseases (Karjalainen and Niederlaender 2004). Despite variations in registration guidelines in different countries, general occupational disease registries probably contain the relatively more severe cases of occupational disease, which result in relatively higher costs. Therefore, it might be relevant OICR-9429 price for policy purposes to perform follow-up studies of the cases from registries. In addition, periodically executed small-scale follow-up studies linked to registries will probably

be less expensive and more efficient than a series of cohort studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the perceived severity and the consequences of the upper extremity disorders that are registered as occupational diseases. Severity, functional impairment, quality of life and sickness absence were assessed over the course of 1 year and compared with reference data on the general working population. Methods Population In the Netherlands, occupational physicians are obliged to notify cases of occupational diseases to the registry of the NCvB. Besides classic occupational diseases like occupational asthma or mesothelioma, this registry also covers work-related diseases like work-related depression or musculoskeletal diseases. The registry distinguishes eleven categories of work-related specific disorders of the upper extremity: radiating neck complaints; rotator cuff syndrome; epicondylitis (lateral and medial); ulnar nerve compression at the elbow (cubital tunnel syndrome); radial nerve compression

(radial tunnel syndrome); flexor–extensor peritendinitis or tenosynovitis of the forearm–wrist selleck region; de Quervain’s disease; carpal tunnel syndrome; ulnar nerve compression at the wrist (Guyon canal syndrome); Raynaud’s phenomenon and peripheral neuropathy associated with hand-arm vibration; and osteoarthrosis of distal upper extremity joints. In addition, a twelfth category of non-specific upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders has been described (Sluiter et al. 2001). We asked occupational physicians, who had participated in an NCvB sentinel surveillance project, to recruit patients, who had been diagnosed with a work-related upper extremity disorder, to participate in this study and to ask them to fill out an informed consent form. After signing the form, the patients received a questionnaire.