Injuries can strike at any time. They come in all different forms, affecting many different parts of the body. But perhaps the most common type of injuries occurs in places where mobility is affected. That means the legs, back, and arms. It’s these injuries that seem to take so long to recover from and that have a big impact on everyday life.
Recently, U.K. researchers conducted a review to find out what was happening with workers who were injured and unable to return to work. They noted that injuries to working adults are common and place a considerable burden on health services.
For their study, the research team recruited emergency department patients and those admitted to hospital because of an injury. The participants ranged from 16 to 65 years old. All completed a questionnaire at one, four, and 12 months post-injury. The questionnaire measured health status, recovery, use of health and social services, time off work in the preceding month and work problems amongst those who had returned to work.
The researchers found that, one month after injury, only 35% of the emergency department attendees had fully returned to work. At four months, 83% of emergency department attendees had returned to work, while 57% of hospital admittees had returned to work. Men were more likely than women to return to work.
Now, here’s where the statistics really started to get interesting. Health status was significantly poorer at one and four months after injury than before the injury and was significantly poorer amongst those that had not returned to work compared to those that had. Problems with pain control, undertaking usual activities, mobility, and anxiety and depression were common and persisted in a considerable proportion of participants up to four months after the injury.
The researchers concluded that injuries have a major impact on patients’ lives.
Many people will have ongoing pain, mobility problems, anxiety, and depression at the point of assessment and it is important that patients are encouraged to use primary-care services to address these problems.
That means that it’s very important to get extra care after an injury. This could take the form of physiotherapy, acupuncture, massage therapy, water therapy, psychological counseling, and/or nutritional therapy. By accessing all of these interventions, you should be able to speed your way to full recovery.
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