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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 Yesa (n = 301) No (n = 151) P Yesa (n = 271) No (n = 181) P Yesa (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 levelb, 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 incomecNo. (%)    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 activitiesd (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)  
  1. 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
  2. ** P < 0.01, *P < 0.05, NS not significant
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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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BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders

ISSN: 1471-2474

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