Restriction in functioning and quality of life is common in people 2 months after compensable motor vehicle crashes: prospective cohort study

Abstract

BackgroundWe sought to identify the role of pre-injury socio-demographic and health characteristics, and injury severity in determining health-related quality-of-life outcomes for mild to moderate injuries 2 months after a motor vehicle crash in a compensable setting.MethodsPeople aged 17 years and older, injured with a New Injury Severity Score of 8 or less, in a motor vehicle crash in New South Wales and who had registered a claim with the Compulsory Third Party Insurance scheme from March to December 2010 were contacted to participate in the study. Information for 364 eligible participants was primarily collected through telephone interview, approximately 2 months after injury.ResultsSubstantial proportions of participants continued to have adverse outcomes approximately 2 months after their injury with mean Short Form Health Survey (SF-12) physical component score of 36.7 (SD ±10.3), SF-12 mental component score of 46.6 (SD ±11), Euro Qol (EQ) analogue scale score of 65.8 (SD ±18) and Euro Qol five dimension (EQ-5D) summary score of 0.70 (SD ±10). Key factors predicting adverse outcomes were prior chronic illness, obesity, hospitalisation and self-perceived threat to life due to injury.ConclusionsThis study highlights the substantial impact of apparently “minor” motor vehicle crash injuries in a compensable setting and suggests targets for studies of tertiary prevention to improve health-related quality-of-life outcomes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40621-015-0042-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Quality of Life after Motorcycle Traffic Injuries: A Cohort Study in Northwest of Iran

“…Regarding the demographic variables, there was no signi cant relationship between age or sex and the QOL of the injured participants in the present study. This is consistent with the results of other studies (11,32). Yet, our results were inconsistent with the results of cohort studies conducted in France and Australia where injured adults (usually above 35 years old) had a poorer QOL in comparison with young people (14,33), and comparison with men; women had a poorer QOL (10).…”

“…Differences in the target group may be one of the reasons for this inconsistency. In an Australian study (11), patients who were hospitalized for more than seven days and those with severe injuries were excluded;…”

“…A considerable volume of literature exists on the QOL of the victims of RTIs (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13). The results of a prospective cohort study in France assessing the QOL of the victims of RTI through one-year follow-up showed that head injury, severe injury, intention to complain, early post-accident medical complications were predictive of health dissatisfaction.…”

The quality of life after motorcycle traffic injuries: a cohort study in northwest of Iran

“…The results of a review have shown that ever since their accident or after being discharged from the hospital, the QOL of traffic accident victims begins to reduce and relationship between age or sex and the QOL of the injured participants in the present study. This is consistent with the results of other studies (10,22). Yet, our results were inconsistent with the results of cohort studies conducted in France and Australia where injured adults (usually above 35 years) had a poorer QOL in comparison to young people (23, 24) and in comparison to men, women had a poorer QOL (9).…”

“…A considerable volume of literature exists on the QOL of the victims of RTIs as it has been thoroughly investigated (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12) though when it comes to the QOL of injured motorcyclists of accidents, the conducted research is much less. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the QOL of injured motorcyclists in a time period of three months after their accident to detect the factors that influence it.…”