Abstract
IntroductionTo reduce the burden on injury survivors and their supporters, factors associated with poor outcomes need to be identified so that timely post-injury interventions can be implemented. To date, few studies have investigated outcomes for both those who were hospitalised and those who were not.AimTo describe the prevalence and to identify pre-injury and injury-related predictors of disability among hospitalised and non-hospitalised people, three months after injury.MethodsParticipants in the Prospective Outcomes of Injury Study were aged 18–64 years and on an injury entitlement claims register with New Zealand's no-fault injury compensation insurer, following referral by healthcare professionals. A wide range of pre-injury demographic, health and injury-related characteristics were collected at interview. Participants were categorised as ‘hospitalised’ if they were placed on New Zealand's National Minimum Data Set within seven days of the injury event. Injury severity scores (NISS) and 12 injury categories were derived from ICD-10 codes. WHODAS assessed disability. Multivariable analyses examined relationships between explanatory variables and disability.ResultsOf 2856 participants, 2752 (96%) had WHODAS scores available for multivariable analysis; 673 were hospitalised; 2079 were not. Disability was highly prevalent among hospitalised (53.6%) and non-hospitalised (39.4%) participants, three-months after injury. In both groups, pre-injury disability, obesity and higher injury severity were associated with increased odds of post-injury disability. A range of other factors were associated with disability in only one group: e.g. female, ≥2 chronic conditions and leg fracture among hospitalised; aged 35–54 years, trouble accessing healthcare, spine or lower extremity sprains/dislocations and assault among non-hospitalised.SignificanceDisability was highly prevalent among both groups yet, with a few exceptions, factors associated with disability were not common to both groups. Where possible, including a range of injured people in studies, hospitalised and not, will increase understanding of the burden of disability in the sub-acute phase.
Highlights
To reduce the burden on injury survivors and their supporters, factors associated with poor outcomes need to be identified so that timely post-injury interventions can be implemented
Disability was highly prevalent among both groups yet, with a few exceptions, factors associated with disability were not common to both groups
All injured people in New Zealand are eligible for accident compensation by law; approximately 1.75 million injury claims are lodged with Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) annually; ‘entitlement claimants’ comprise approximately 7% of injuries referred to ACC [18,19]
Summary
To reduce the burden on injury survivors and their supporters, factors associated with poor outcomes need to be identified so that timely post-injury interventions can be implemented. Few studies have investigated outcomes for both those who were hospitalised and those who were not. To reduce burden among injury survivors and their families/supporters, characteristics associated with poor outcomes need to be identified so that timely and effective post-injury interventions can be implemented. Despite the acknowledged gap in understanding the burden associated with poor outcomes following injury, few studies have investigated outcomes for people with ‘all types of injury’ [7,8]. Research considering ‘all injury’ has tended to focus on general health, functional or employment outcomes rather than disability [7,9,10,11,12]
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