Abstract
PurposeThe impact of road traffic crashes on health is well developed, in terms of deaths and direct consequences, but it is less so in terms of long-term life consequences. Few studies have compared the general impact on Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) following road traffic injury (RTI) by using a variety of different injured body parts and severity levels of the injury and compared them with a sample of non-injured referent individuals. Consequently, the aim of the current study is to assess how injury severity is associated with HRQoL, and if it differs between men, women, over age and injured body parts.MethodsThis cross-sectional study identified people with a RTI in the Swedish Traffic Accident Data Acquisition System (STRADA). A frequency matched reference group was also included. Data include both register data and self-reported HRQoL data.ResultsA total of 1788 out of 4761 persons with an RTI (37.6%) and 2186 out of 4761 reference persons (45.9%) returned the questionnaire, giving a total response rate of 41.9% (n = 3974). The findings show different patterns of HRQoL loss, depending on sex, age, injured body part, and levels of injury severity.ConclusionThe results show that even relatively minor road traffic injuries can lead to a significantly lower of HRQoL, especially for women, compared to the non-injured reference group. Moreover, when the inherent reduction of HRQoL over age was considered, the results indicated that younger individuals have a larger difference from the reference group in HRQoL, independent of the injury severity, compared to the older individuals; hence, an improved understanding of age and gender differences in HRQoL following an RTI is needed to better understand the long-term consequences of injuries from a public health perspective.
Highlights
Road traffic injuries cause major health loss in the world [1], and it is predicted to be the seventh leading cause of death in 2030 [2]
When the Maximum AIS score (MAIS) categorization was considered in the analysis, the results indicated that participants with the MAIS3 classified injuries reported significantly lower Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) compared to the two other MAIS classifications
When analyzing HRQoL according to age, the results showed that there is a significant difference in the HRQoL index scores across all the different age groups with MAIS1 classified injuries reporting the highest HRQoL
Summary
Road traffic injuries cause major health loss in the world [1], and it is predicted to be the seventh leading cause of death in 2030 [2]. A qualitative Swedish study [12] indicated that individuals who suffered minor and moderate injuries following a road traffic crash (severe injuries not included) reported long-term life consequences. These consequences included physical, psychological, financial, and everyday life consequences. A surprising finding of the study was that women and men report different consequences following RTI in relation to the psychological and everyday life consequences. These reported differences included psychological reactions like travel anxiety and PTSD-like symptoms, which were reported by the women but not the men
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