Working capacity and cervical dystonia☆

Received 18 March 2009; received in revised form 28 June 2009; accepted 15 July 2009.

Abstract

The objective of this questionnaire study was to assess the effect of cervical dystonia on patients' working capacity. Of the 303 working-aged members of the Finnish Dystonia Association (N = 433) who participated in the study 247 (82%) had cervical dystonia. Their median age was 50 years, the median duration of CD symptoms was 12.3 years. Most (78%) subjects were on botulinum toxin treatment. Ninety-seven (39%) had retired because of CD at a median age of 48 years; 96 (39%) of the subjects were working: 87 full-time and 9 part-time. The remaining participants were on sick leave, unemployed, studying or retired of other reasons. Retirement occurred more than ten years earlier compared with the general Finnish population. All possibilities to help CD patients to continue longer in work should be considered early.

Keywords: Cervical dystonia, Employment, Rehabilitation, Retirement, Working capacity

a The Finnish Parkinson Association and Foundation, PO Box 905, FIN-20101 Turku, Finland

b Pirkanmaa Hospital District, Science Center, Tampere, Finland

c Tampere School of Public Health, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

d Department of Neurology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

Corresponding author. Tel.: +358 2 2740424; fax: +358 2 2740444.

☆ The review of this paper was entirely handled by an Associate Editor, Vincenzo Bonifati.

PII: S1353-8020(09)00195-3

doi:10.1016/j.parkreldis.2009.07.006

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