Return to work after hospitalization for sepsis: a nationwide, registry-based cohort study

Sepsis survivors commonly experience functional impairment, which may limit return to work. We investigated return to work (RTW) of patients hospitalized with sepsis and the associations with patient and clinical characteristics. Working-age patients (18–60 years) admitted to a Norwegian hospital with sepsis between 2010 and 2021 were identified using the Norwegian Patient Registry and linked to sick-leave data from the Norwegian National Social Security System Registry. The main outcome was proportion of RTW in patients hospitalized with sepsis at 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years after discharge. Secondary outcomes were time trends in age-standardized proportions of RTW and probability of sustainable RTW (31 days of consecutive work). The time trends were calculated for each admission year, reported as percentage change with 95