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14th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand (IFSSH), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT)

17.06. - 21.06.2019, Berlin

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Psychological impact of hand injuries among foreign workers in Singapore

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  • presenting/speaker Ian Dhanaraj - Khoo Teck Phuat Hospital, Singapore, Singapore
  • Vaikunthan Rajaratnam - Khoo Teck Phuat Hospital, Singapore, Singapore

International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand. International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy. 14th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand (IFSSH), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT). Berlin, 17.-21.06.2019. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2020. DocIFSSH19-227

doi: 10.3205/19ifssh0172, urn:nbn:de:0183-19ifssh01728

Published: February 6, 2020

© 2020 Dhanaraj et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

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Objectives/Interrogation: Foreign workers are essential to Singapore, contributing to a significant portion of her workforce through a range of vocations. They are mostly low-skilled and face multiple challenges in order to work in Singapore. In addition to these stressors, an injury to the hand, a primary means of interacting with ones surroundings, may have a profound psycho-social impact. Our study, a first in Singapore, aims to shed light on the psychological impact that hand injuries have on an integral, yet vulnerable and neglected population.

Methods: This is a single-centre prospective study evaluating the psycho-social impact and functional outcomes of hand injuries among foreign workers in Singapore. Foreign workers were consecutively recruited from the Hand Surgery clinic. A single encounter interview was conducted for eligible patients. Psychological impact was measured with the DASS-21, symptom severity and limitation of daily function with the Quick DASH score, pain experienced with the VAS. Injury-specific and demographic data were collected as well.

Results and Conclusions: There were 36 foreign workers were recruited into this study. The mean age was 32.6 years [standard deviation (SD) 7.2]. Majority of them were male (94.4%), married (58.3%), and had salary less than SGD1000 per month (58.3%). The most common mechanisms of work-related injuries were cut (58.3%) and crush (25.0%). Stress, anxiety and depression were positively associated with limitation of daily function (p<0.001). Multivariate analysis found that limitation of daily function was independently associated with stress (95% CI 0.12-0.34; p<0.001), anxiety (95% CI 0.03-0.23; p=0.017) and depression (95% CI 0.04-0.26; p=0.008).

Our study has for the first time shown that there is a significant psychosocial-impact of hand injuries among foreign workers in Singapore. In light of this, there is potential for the development of screening and support programmes for at-risk workers to cater to their mental well-being, a basic human right. We recommend that the psychological impact of hand injuries must be factored into the holistic management and rehabilitation with adequate time and resource allocation. An ancillary benefit of this comprehensive strategy is the improvement of productivity and overall contribution to Singapore's economy. For this reason, this data may be useful to employers and the Ministry of Manpower.