Six Month Quality of Life of Trauma Patients from A Non- Trauma Regional Hospital in Singapore

Abstract

Introduction: Trauma is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in Singapore. In our peripheral hospital we have a large trauma load despite being a non level one trauma center. Whilst we have many studies done in the West documenting the quality of life of trauma victims using scoring systems such as the EQ5DTM and GOSE, there is a paucity of literature from this part of the World. Methods: We analyzed the results of 6 months of data collected by our trauma coordinator looking specifically at the EQ5D TM and GOSE scores after 6 months of rehabilitation amongst survivors. Phone interviews were conducted with patients or proxies as respondents. Results: Our scores showed a poor quality of life in 50% of the cohort. An average score of 5-10 was found in 30% of respondents. Only 31% of the patients returned to work, 31% of these were doing the same job as before the trauma and 20% lived in a nursing home. The GOSE (Glasgow outcome score extended) is the most widely used method to describe overall outcome after head injury. Our results showed 63% recovered moderately at 6 months whilst 31% were severely disabled. 20% reported disrupted family relations and only 56% reported resumption of normal life. Discussion: Further large studies are needed to determine similar scores across Singapore and psycho social interventions required to ensure a better prognosis and outcome. longitudinal picture. The 8 point extended Glasgow outcome Score is a validated, structured interview based survey of the patient and caretaker to quantify disability as an outcome measure. There are many factors that affect post trauma health status and quality of life, however they are poorly understood. Most studies confer that the injury severity relates inversely to the patient's functional recovery. Singapore has a large trauma load having a booming industrial and construction focus. It also has a significant prevalence of road traffic accidents and blunt trauma, even in non trauma centers. Literature suggests that non trauma center outcomes are generally worse than designated regional trauma centers (7,8).Since there is a general lack of standardised comparative research in this field locally, we wished to describe the post-trauma health status and functional outcomes in our population (9-11). Methods