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

Darnel F. Murgatroyd; Ian A. Harris; Yvonne Tran; Ian D. Cameron

doi:10.1186/s12891-016-1152-2

Table 2 Baseline characteristics and health status of participants in the study compared to non-participants at six, 12 and 24 month follow up

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

	Participation at six months			Participation at 12 months			Participation at 24 months
Variable	Yes^a (n = 301)	No (n = 151)	P	Yes^a (n = 271)	No (n = 181)	P	Yes^a (n = 230)	No (n = 222)	p
Age (years), Mean (SD)	41.2 (16.5)	36.5 (17.8)	0.006	41.8 (16.9)	36.5 (16.8)	0.001	42.7 (16.6)	36.5 (17.1)	<0.001
Marital status, No. (%)			0.001			0.068			0.002
Single	107 (35.7)	80 (53.7)		100 (37.3)	87 (48.1)		77 (33.9)	110 (49.5)
Married/defacto	162 (54.0)	54 (36.2)		140 (52.2)	76 (42.0)		127 (55.9)	89 (40.1)
Divorced/widowed	31 (10.3)	15 (10.1)		28 (10.4)	18 (9.9)		23 (10.1)	23 (10.4)
Occupation skill level^b, No. (%)			0.029			0.180			0.023
Home duties/retired	22 (7.3)	17 (11.3)		22 (8.1)	17 (9.4)		19 (8.3)	20 (9.0)
Managers/professionals	71 (23.6)	27 (17.9)		66 (24.4)	32 (17.7)		60 (26.1)	38 (17.1)
Tradespersons	93 (30.9)	33 (21.9)		81 (29.9)	45 (24.9)		71 (30.9)	55 (24.8)
Intermediate clerical	43 (14.3)	21 (13.9)		35 (12.9)	29 (16.0)		27 (11.7)	37 (16.7)
Elementary related	72 (23.9)	53 (35.1)		67 (24.7)	58 (32.0)		53 (23.0)	72 (32.4)
Work status before injury (working), No. (%)	233 (77.9)	101 (66.9)	0.011	210 (78.1)	124 (68.5)	0.023	182 (79.9)	152 (68.5)	0.006
Total yearly household income^cNo. (%)			0.018			0.080			0.153
≤$39,999	68 (24.5)	47 (35.1)		64 (25.3)	51 (32.3)		52 (24.1)	63 (32.3)
$40,000-$79,999	89 (32.1)	47 (35.1)		80 (31.6)	56 (35.4)		73 (33.8)	63 (32.3)
≥$80,000	120 (43.3)	40 (29.9)		109 (43.1)	51 (32.3)		91 (42.1)	69 (35.4)
Smoking history, No. (%)			<0.001			0.020			0.008
Current smoker	64 (21.3)	61 (40.7)		62 (23.0)	63 (35.0)		49 (21.4)	76 (34.4)
Ex-smoker	86 (28.7)	33 (22.0)		76 (28.1)	43 (23.9)		68 (29.7)	51 (23.1)
Never smoked	150 (50.0)	56 (37.3)		132 (48.9)	74 (41.1)		112 (48.9)	94 (42.5)
Medication use (current), No. (%)	89 (29.7)	32 (21.2)	0.055	85 (31.5)	36 (19.9)	0.006	73 (31.9)	48 (21.6)	0.014
Recovery expectations for usual activities^d (days), No. (%)			0.072			0.899			0.367
≤90	184 (64.4)	83 (59.7)		155 (60.5)	112 (66.7)		131 (60.4)	136 (65.7)
91-180	58 (20.4)	36 (25.9)		58 (22.7)	36 (21.4)		49 (22.6)	45 (21.7)
181-365	34 (11.9)	11 (7.9)		34 (13.3)	11 (6.5)		31 (14.3)	14 (6.8)
≥366	9 (3.2)	9 (6.5)		9 (3.5)	9 (5.4)		6 (2.8)	12 (5.8)
Vehicle type, No. (%)			0.002			0.006			0.005
Motor vehicle	169 (56.1)	102 (67.5)		155 (57.2)	116 (64.1)		129 (56.1)	142 (64.0)
Motorcycle	120 (39.9)	37 (24.5)		107 (39.5)	50 (27.6)		94 (40.9)	63 (28.4)
Bicycle	12 (4.0)	12 (7.9)		9 (3.3)	15 (8.3)		7 (3.0)	17 (7.7)

^aParticipation status ‘yes’ was measured using the information recorded in variables - work status at six, 12 and 24 months and the SF36, Physical Component Score (PCS) at six, 12 and 24 months respectively
** P < 0.01, *P < 0.05, NS not significant
^bThe measure for occupation is from the Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO), Cat. No. 1220.0, Australian Bureau of Statistics 1997. See Table 1, Occupational skill level for all categories
^cCategories of income are from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey Wave 6 Household Questionnaire. Income is before tax (AUD) and excluding number of people in household
^dRecovery 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

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