![Sample our Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing & Allied Health journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5944/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Medicine-Dentistry-Nursing-Allied-Health.jpg"})
Abstract
Objectives: There is disagreement over the roles of biological and psycho-social factors in the prolongation of whiplash symptoms. The issue of whether differences in recovery time result from differences in the severity of physical injury or from non-physiological social variables, such as insurance compensation, remains unresolved. We examined, for one year, the circumstances of Japanese receiving treatment who had been in rear-end collisions during a specified time period, and were presumed to have whiplash injuries.
Methods: Subjects were 6,167 adults over 20 years of age who had been examined at an emergency center or a general hospital for symptoms such as neck pain presumed to be the result of cervical hyperextension caused by rear-end collision. No abnormalities were detected by neurological examinations, nor by X-rays. Data collected included the following items: gender, age, area of residence, date of accident, date of initial examination, occupation, seat belt use, whether they were driver or passenger, awareness of impending collision, behavior after accident, method of transportation to initial examination, whether there was loss of consciousness, and duration of medical treatment. We calculated the odds-ratios [OR] of those who continued to receive treatment and those who did not at 1.5 months, 3 months, and 6 months post-trauma.
Results: Factors such as: female gender, use of emergency vehicle transportation, and early complaint of symptoms were significantly correlated with persistence of symptoms at six months post-trauma, while employment status had no significant association with continued treatment.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that although both biological and social factors increased the probability of short- and medium-term prolongation [1.5 months and 3 months], the biological variables were mainly found to influence long-term prolongation of whiplash symptoms [6 months].