Telephone support after traffic accidents reduces problems and improves quali... ( People who were injured in road acci...)

Telephone support after traffic accidents reduces problems and improves quality of life

Date:1/14/2009

People who were injured in road accidents had fewer problems and a much higher quality of life if they received a simple follow-up call from a nurse three weeks after being discharged from hospital, according to research in the January issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

During the two-year study, researchers from Umea University in Sweden followed up 568 car occupants, cyclists and pedestrians who had attended the same emergency department after an accident.

They found that patients in the telephone support group were 35% less likely to complain of pain and discomfort than patients in the control group and that this rose to 40% when it came to car occupants. Patients who received support also reported fewer problems with anxiety, depression, everyday tasks and mobility.

The patients, who were between 18 and 70, were randomly assigned to the intervention group (288 people) or the control group (280). People with mental health problems or dementia were specifically excluded. 510 people completed the six-month study 147 were car drivers, 178 were cyclists and 185 were pedestrians.

All the patients were asked to fill in the same quality of life questionnaire two weeks and six months after their accident.

Patients in the intervention group also received a follow-up call after three weeks. These ranged from an average of 12 minutes in the 38% of patients who didn't need advice and 24 minutes in the 62% of patients who did ask for advice.

Key findings from the nurse-led phone calls included:

Women were more than twice as likely to seek advice as men (69% versus 31%).
Two-thirds of the problems mentioned by the intervention group were physical, such as pain and decreased mobility, and a third were psychological, such as emotional instability and feeling tense in traffic.
Women were almost twice as likely to report physical problems as men (66% versus 34%
'/>"/>

Contact: Annette Whibley
wizard.media@virgin.net
Wiley-Blackwell
Source:Eurekalert

0

GOOD

Page: 1 2 3
Related medicine news :

1. Trinity Health System Selects Beryl as Preferred Provider to Enhance Telephone Customer Service
2. Stryker to Provide Webcast and Telephone Access to Annual Shareholder Meeting
3. Nationwide Telephone News Briefing for U.S. Health Disparities Forum
4. Telephone Nursing an Important Component of Managed Healthcare
5. Sentry Telecare Establishes Partnering Program to Market Telephone Check-in and Personal Emergency Response Service
6. Most support Alzheimers research based on family consent
7. Unbound Medicine Announces Download Support for iPhone(TM) and iPod(R) Touch Devices
8. After Founding Meeting in St. Louis ... Labor Unions Vow Stepped Up Pressure on Congress to Support Medicare for All Approach to Healthcare Reform
9. Window World Cares Raises $160,000 for St. Jude Childrens Hospital, Commits to Ongoing Support
10. AGnES supports general practitioners
11. UNC study supports role of circadian clock in response to chemotherapy

Post Your Comments:

Telephone support after traffic accidents reduces problems and improves quali...( People who were injured in road acci...),Health