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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