Inability to Work after Myocardial Infarction: A 5-Year Follow-up Study

The rates of a return to work after myocardial infarction are still, even today, unsatisfactory. The factors which lead to a late return to work are well known. Apart from medical reasons it is above all the far-reaching sociological changes in the attitude to work and the declining job market which affect return to work after cardiac infarction. On account of these changes the positive effects of the follow-up therapeutic treatment and comprehensive rehabilitation are weakened. In a prospective study of 1019 random patients in Hamburg it emerged that only 53% of those under 60 were again employed 18 months after a first cardiac infarction from which they had recovered (Weis 1983). In our experience the same well-known factors which impede reintegration into working life apply to patients after bypass operations.