Comparison of health outcomes between hospitalised and non-hospitalised persons with minor injuries sustained in a road traffic crash in Australia: a prospective cohort study

Bamini Gopinath; Jagnoor Jagnoor; Ian A Harris; Michael Nicholas; Christopher G Maher; Petrina Casey; Fiona Blyth; Doungkamol Sindhusake; Ian D Cameron

doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2015-009303

Comparison of health outcomes between hospitalised and non-hospitalised persons with minor injuries sustained in a road traffic crash in Australia: a prospective cohort study

BMJ Open. 2015 Sep 24;5(9):e009303. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-009303.

Authors

Bamini Gopinath¹, Jagnoor Jagnoor¹, Ian A Harris², Michael Nicholas³, Christopher G Maher⁴, Petrina Casey¹, Fiona Blyth³, Doungkamol Sindhusake⁵, Ian D Cameron¹

Affiliations

¹ John Walsh Centre for Rehabilitation Research, Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
² Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, South Western Sydney Clinical School, UNSW, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
³ Pain Management Research Institute, Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁴ George Institute for Global Health, Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁵ Medical Imaging, Faculty of Medicine, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Abstract

Objectives: This prospective cohort study aimed to investigate whether there are differences in health outcomes among persons with mild or moderate injuries who were hospitalised compared with those not hospitalised following a road traffic crash.

Setting: Sydney Metropolitan, New South Wales, Australia.

Participants: Persons aged ≥18 years involved in a motor vehicle crash were surveyed at baseline (n=364), and at 12 (n=284) and 24 months (n=252). A telephone-administered questionnaire obtained information on a range of socioeconomic, and preinjury and postinjury psychological and heath characteristics of all participants.

Primary outcome measure: Participants who reported admission to hospital for 24 h or more (but less than 7 days) after the crash were classified as being hospitalised; those admitted for less than 24 h were classified as non-hospitalised.

Results: Around 1 in 5 participants (19.0%) were hospitalised for ≥24 h after the crash. After adjusting for age and sex, hospitalised participants compared with those not hospitalised had approximately 2.6 units (p=0.01) lower Short Form-12 Physical Component Summary (SF-12 PCS) scores (poorer physical well-being) and approximately 4.9 units lower European Quality of Life visual analogue scale (EQ-VAS) scores (p=0.05), 12 months later. After further adjusting for education level, whiplash, fracture and injury severity score, participants who were hospitalised had approximately 3.3 units lower SF-12 PCS (p=0.04), 12 months later. The association with EQ-VAS did not persist after multivariable adjustment. No significant differences were observed between the 2 groups in health outcomes at 24-month follow-up.

Conclusions: These findings indicate that long-term health status is unlikely to be influenced by hospitalisation status after sustaining a mild/moderate injury in a vehicle-related crash.

Keywords: ACCIDENT & EMERGENCY MEDICINE; EPIDEMIOLOGY; PUBLIC HEALTH; REHABILITATION MEDICINE.

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Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Accidents, Traffic*
Adult
Aged
Analysis of Variance
Female
Health Status*
Hospitalization / statistics & numerical data*
Humans
Injury Severity Score
Male
Middle Aged
New South Wales
Outcome Assessment, Health Care
Prospective Studies
Quality of Life
Socioeconomic Factors
Wounds and Injuries / etiology
Wounds and Injuries / psychology
Wounds and Injuries / therapy*