PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF RIGHT HAND TRAUMA IN LABOR GROUP

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the correlation between mean Disabilities of Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (DASH) scores and Impact of Event Scale-revised (IES-R) scores in laborer with right hand trauma. METHODS: This correlational study was carried out at the Department of Plastic Surgery, Civil Hospital Karachi, Pakistan from January 2022 to June 2022. The inclusion criteria were laborers of any gender, age ≥18 years, presenting with right hand trauma having dominant hand infection and were medically fit and well and had no systemic illness. The severity of symptoms was assessed via DASH questionnaire. While psychological impact was assessed via IES-R. RESULTS: Out of 60 patients, 56 (93.3%) were males and 4 (6.7%) were females. Mean age of the patients was 45.07±14.96 years. Majority (n=50; 83.3%) of the patients were married. Overall, a moderate positive correlation was observed in between DASH score and IES score (r: 0.503, p: <0.001). Further stratification revealed moderate significant correlation of IES and DISH score for married workers (r: 0.578, p: <0.001), >5 years of experience (r: 0.663, p: <0.001); whereas strong positive correlation was observed for crush injury (r: 0.943, p: <0.001), puncture injury (r: 0.970, p: <0.001) and cut injuries (r:0.754: p=0.012). CONCLUSION: This study revealed a considerable relationship of DASH scale and psychological impairment in patients with right hand trauma. Worker who have gone through right hand trauma due to crush, puncture or cut injuries, married and those having more than 5 years of experience should be considered as high-risk population for psychological impairment.