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Table 1 Baseline characteristics and health status by claim status at six months

From: The association between seeking financial compensation and injury recovery following motor vehicle related orthopaedic trauma

Variable

No.

Claim made (n = 179)

No claim made (n = 115)

P

Age (years), Mean (SD)

294

41.3 (16.0)

39.7 (16.7)

0.42

Injury Severity Score, No. (%)

   

0.62

 Minor - moderate 1-8

294

44 (24.6)

31 (27.0)

 

 Serious 9-15

 

105 (58.7)

61 (53.0)

 

 Severe - critical 16-75

 

30 (16.8)

23 (20.0)

 

New Injury Severity Score, No. (%)

294

  

0.49

 Minor- moderate 1-8

 

34 (19.0)

25 (21.7)

 

 Serious 9-15

 

67 (37.4)

48 (41.7)

 

 Severe - critical 16-75

 

78 (43.6)

42 (36.5)

 

Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage (IRSD)a, Mean (SD)

294

969 (149)

990 (149)

0.23

Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage (IRSD)a, No. (%)

294

  

0.09

 Most disadvantaged

 

53 (29.6)

28 (24.3)

 

 Disadvantaged

 

17 (9.5)

6 (5.2)

 

 Average

 

37 (20.7)

17 (14.8)

 

 Advantaged

 

37 (20.7)

38 (33.0)

 

 Most advantaged

 

35 (19.5)

26 (22.6)

 

Male, No. (%)

294

120 (67.0)

90 (78.3)

0.04

Marital status, No. (%)

293

  

0.34

 Single

 

58 (32.4)

46 (40.4)

 

 Married/de facto

 

103 (57.5)

56 (49.1)

 

 Divorced/widowed/separated

 

18 (10.1)

12 (10.5)

 

Education skill levelb, No. (%)

291

  

0.06

 Bachelor degree and above

 

36 (20.1)

17 (15.0)

 

 Certificate and advanced diploma

 

66 (36.9)

53 (46.9)

 

 Secondary education

 

65 (36.3)

42 (37.2)

 

 Pre-primary and primary education

 

11 (6.1)

1 (0.9)

 

Occupation skill levelb, No. (%)

294

  

0.24

 Home duties/retired

 

15 (8.4)

6 (5.2)

 

 Managers/administrators/ professionals/associate professionals

 

39 (21.8)

31 (27.0)

 

 Tradespersons/advanced clerical and service workers

 

50 (27.9)

42 (36.5)

 

 Intermediate clerical/sale/service production/transport workers

 

28 (15.6)

14 (12.2)

 

 Elementary clerical/sales/service/labourers/related workers

 

47 (26.3)

22 (19.1)

 

Work status before injury (working), No. (%)

292

140 (78.2)

91 (80.5)

0.64

Work level before injury (full duties), No. (%)

231

133 (95.0)

89 (97.8)

0.28

Work hours before injuryc (full time), No. (%)

227

105 (76.8)

80 (88.9)

0.02

Pre-injury job satisfactiond (satisfied), No. (%)

231

136 (97.1)

84 (92.3)

0.09

Recovery expectations for worke (yes), No. (%)

229

125 (89.9)

85 (94.4)

0.23

Recovery expectations for usual activitiese (days), No. (%)

278

  

0.37

 ≤90

 

104 (60.5)

74 (69.8)

 

 91-180

 

37 (21.5)

20 (18.9)

 

 181-365

 

24 (14)

10 (9.4)

 

 ≥366

 

7 (4.1)

2 (1.9)

 

Language other than English (yes), No. (%)

294

72 (40.0)

32 (27.8)

0.03

Total yearly household incomef (before tax, AUD) excluding number of people in household, No. (%)

270

  

0.47

 ≤$39,999

 

42 (25.5)

22 (21.0)

 

 $40,000-$79,999

 

55 (33.3)

32 (30.5)

 

 ≥$80,000

 

68 (41.2)

51 (48.6)

 

Total adjusted yearly household incomef (before tax, AUD) including number of people in household, No. (%)

270

  

0.32

 ≤$39,999

 

97 (58.8)

58 (55.2)

 

 $40,000-$79,999

 

54 (32.7)

32 (30.5)

 

 ≥$80,000

 

14 (8.5)

15 (14.3)

 

Body Mass Index (BMI)g (kg/m2), No. (%)

292

  

0.07

 <18.50 (underweight)

 

4 (2.3)

3 (2.6)

 

 18.50-24.99 (normal)

 

49 (27.7)

47 (40.9)

 

 ≥25.00 (overweight)

 

78 (44.1)

35 (30.4)

 

 ≥30.00 (obese)

 

46 (26.0)

30 (26.1)

 

Smoking history, No. (%)

293

  

0.23

 Current smoker

 

34 (19.1)

28 (24.3)

 

 Ex-smoker

 

47 (26.4)

36 (31.3)

 

 Never smoked

 

97 (54.5)

51 (44.3)

 

Self-reported chronic illnesses (yes), No. (%)

294

71 (39.7)

37 (32.2)

0.19

Medication use (current), No. (%)

293

52 (29.2)

32 (27.8)

0.80

Recent injury other than crash (yes), No. (%)

292

7 (3.9)

5 (4.4)

0.85

Alcohol use in the past yearg, No. (%)

294

  

0.23

 Never

 

37 (20.7)

18 (15.7)

 

 ≤1/month

 

45 (25.1)

20 (17.4)

 

 2-4 times/month

 

42 (23.5)

30 (26.1)

 

 2-3 times/week

 

32 (17.9)

24 (20.9)

 

 ≥4 times/week

 

23 (12.8)

23 (20.0)

 

Alcohol use in the past yearh (standard drinksi on a typical day when you were drinking), Median (Min.- Max.)

293

2.0 (0.0-33.0)

3.0 (0.0-35.0)

0.05

Alcohol use in the past yearh (≥6 standard drinksi/occasion), No. (%)

294

  

0.15

 Never

 

84 (46.9)

39 (33.9)

 

 Less than monthly

 

47 (26.3)

34 (29.6)

 

 Monthly

 

16 (8.9)

14 (12.2)

 

 Weekly

 

27 (15.1)

20 (17.4)

 

 Daily or almost daily

 

5 (2.8)

8 (7.0)

 

Risk of long term harm due to alcohol consumptionj(standard drinksi/week), No. (%)

293

  

0.17

 Low risk - ≤28 male or ≤14 female

 

172 (96.1)

104 (91.2)

 

 Risky - 29–42 male or 15–28 female

 

4 (2.2)

4 (3.5)

 

 High risk - ≥43 male or ≥29 female

 

3 (1.7)

6 (5.3)

 

Risk of short term harm due to alcohol consumptionj (yes), No. (%)

294

95 (53.1)

76 (66.1)

0.03

Self-reported at fault (yes), No. (%)

293

33 (18.5)

72 (62.6)

<0.001

Vehicle type, No. (%)

294

  

0.02

 Motor vehicle

 

111 (62.0)

52 (45.2)

 

 Motorcycle

 

61 (34.1)

58 (50.4)

 

 Bicycle

 

7 (3.9)

5 (4.3)

 

Pre-morbid neck pain in last 6 months (yes), No. (%)

294

6 (3.4)

9 (7.8)

0.09

Post-morbid neck pain (yes), No. (%)

294

38 (21.2)

21 (18.3)

0.54

Crash on a public road (yes), No. (%)

294

170 (95.0)

96 (83.5)

0.001

Self-assessed pre-injury health statusk, No. (%)

294

  

0.06

 Excellent

 

55 (30.7)

35 (30.4)

 

 Very good

 

72 (40.2)

41 (35.7)

 

 Good

 

46 (25.7)

26 (22.6)

 

 Fair-Poor

 

6 (3.4)

13 (11.3)

 
  1. aThe Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage (IRSD) is a summary measure of economic and social conditions within a particular area/postcode (e.g., employment, fluency in English and household size). It is taken from the Census of Population and Housing: Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), Cat no. 2039.0.55.001: Australian Bureau of Statistics; 2001. A low score is indicative of greater socioeconomic disadvantage
  2. bMeasures for occupation and education are from the Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO), Cat. No. 1220.0, Australian Bureau of Statistics 1997 and the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED), Cat. No. 1272.0, Australian Bureau of Statistics 2001
  3. cMeasures for full-time (usually working at least 35 h per week) and part-time (usually working 1–35 h per week) are from the Australian Health Survey: Users' Guide, 2011–13, Cat. No. 4363.0.55.001, Australian Bureau of Statistics [45]
  4. dPre-injury job satisfaction is based on the stem question from the Measure of Job Satisfaction questionnaire by Traynor, M. and Wade, B. 1993
  5. eRecovery expectations was based on two measures from a large Canadian study of injured workers with soft tissue injuries by Cole et al. (2002) due to the lack of validated measures
  6. fCategories of income are from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey Wave 6 Household Questionnaire. Adjusted household income divides household income by the sum of points: 1 for the first person ≥15 years; 0.5 for each additional person ≥15 years; and 0.3 for each person <15 years. This is taken from the National Health Survey: Users’ Guide, Cat.no. 4363.0.55.001. Australian Bureau of Statistics 2004–05
  7. gBMI classification is from the Global Database on Body Mass Index, World Health Organisation
  8. hQuestions are from the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test: Self-Report Version (AUDIT-C) from the Drink-less program, The University of Sydney. http://sydney.edu.au/medicine/addiction/drinkless/resources.php
  9. i1 standard drink contains 12.5 ml or 10 g of alcohol according to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australian Alcohol Guidelines Health Risks and Benefits, October 2001
  10. jRisk of long and/or short term harm due to alcohol consumption was assessed with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) levels
  11. kSelf-assessed pre-injury health status is based on Question 1 from the Short Form 36, Version 2.0, (SF36v2)
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