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Disabled Workers Get a Lift Back to Work

If you've never been injured on the job, the term Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) may not mean much. But for the worker who is disabled and can't do the work required by the job, FCE is very important. FCE is the examination that measures a person's level of function compared to the demands of the job. FCE tries to answer the question: Does this person have the ability to do the job safely?

Eleven million people in the United States receive disability benefits. The cost of disability in the United States was seven billion dollars in 1998. Spending that much money means some tests must be used to decide who is disabled and who can return to work. There isn't a single instrument that measures all areas of work ability. Different tests measure different work-related functions.

What determines whether a person can go back to work? Do lifting ability and grip strength show when a person can safely return to work? Recent research suggests that the more weight a person can lift from the floor to the waist, the more likely it is that the worker will go back to work. Grip strength isn't related to return to work, however. The longer a worker is away from the job, the less likely he or she is to return to work. Men are less likely to return to work than women.

FCE measures work-related abilities. The ability to lift objects from the floor to waist level is a valuable measure of when a person can return to work. Members of the health-care team use the results to help injured workers get back to work activities that are safe.

References: Leonard N. Matheson, PhD, et al. Relationships Among Lifting Ability, Grip Force, and Return to Work. In Physical Therapy. March 2002. Vol. 82. No. 3. Pp. 249-256.

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