Return to work after ischemic stroke in young adults: a registry-based follow-up study

Objective: We aimed to investigate the proportion of young patients not returning to work (NRTW) at one year after ischemic stroke (IS) and during follow-up, and clinical factors associated with NRTW.
Methods: Patients from Helsinki Young Stroke Registry with an IS occurring in the years 1994-2007, who were at paid employment within one year before IS, and with National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score ≤15 points at hospital discharge, were included. Data on periods of payment came from the Finnish Centre for Pensions, and death data from Statistics Finland. Multivariate logistic regression analyses assessed factors associated with NRTW one year after IS and Lasagna plots visualized the proportion of patients returning to work over time.
Results: We included a total of 769 patients, of whom 289 (37.6%) were not working at one year, 323 (42.0%) at two years, and 361 (46.9%) at five years from IS. When adjusted for age, sex, socioeconomic status and NIHSS score at admissi...