Article Text

Download PDFPDF
I did NOT feel like this at all before the accident: do men and women report different health and life consequences of a road traffic injury?
  1. Marie Hasselberg1,
  2. Marie Kirsebom2,
  3. Josefin Bäckström3,
  4. Hans-Yngve Berg1,4,
  5. Ritva Rissanen1
  1. 1 Department of Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
  2. 2 Department of Health and Caring Sciences, Linné Universitetet, Växsjö, Sweden
  3. 3 Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Caring Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
  4. 4 Swedish Transport Agency, Borlange, Sweden
  1. Correspondence to Dr Ritva Rissanen, Department of Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm 17177, Sweden; ritva.rissanen{at}ki.se

Abstract

Background Worldwide, injuries represent one of the leading causes of mortality, and nearly one-quarter of all injuries are road traffic related. In many high-income countries, the burden of road traffic injuries (RTIs) has shifted from premature death to injury and disability with long-term consequences; therefore, it is important to assess the full burden of an RTI on individual lives.

Objective To describe how men and women with minor and moderate injuries reported the consequences of an RTI on their health and lives.

Methods The study was designed as an explorative qualitative study, in which the answers to an open-ended question concerning the life and health consequences following injury were analysed using systematic text condensation.

Participants A total of 692 respondents with a minor or a moderate injury were included.

Results The respondents reported the consequences of the crash on their health and lives according to four categories: physical consequences, psychological consequences, everyday life consequences and financial consequences. The results show that medically classified minor and moderate injuries have detrimental long-term health and life consequences. Although men and women report some similar consequences, there are substantial differences in their reported psychological and everyday life consequences following an injury. Women report travel anxiety and PTSD-like symptoms, being life altering for them compared with men, for whom these types of reports were missing.

Conclusion These differences emphasise the importance of considering gender-specific physical and psychological consequences following an RTI.

  • quality of life
  • motor vehicle occupant
  • pedestrian
  • bicycle
  • qualitative research
  • traumatic stress/ptsd

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Footnotes

  • Contributors All authors have made substantial intellectual contributions. H-YB collected the data for the study. H-YB, MH and RR were involved in designing the study. MK, JB, MH and RR analysed the material and interpreted results. All authors have read and critically revised the manuscript both before submission and during the peer review process.

  • Funding This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Patient consent Obtained.

  • Ethics approval The study was approved by the Regional Ethical Review Board in Stockholm, Dnr. 2016/182-31.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

  • Data sharing statement There is no additional unpublished data from the study that is available.