Psychological determinants of quality of life in patients with whiplash associated disorders–a prospective study

Abstract

Purpose. To evaluate whether psychological factors and personality traits influence recovery in terms of quality of life in patients with subacute whiplash associated disorders (WAD).

Method. The data was obtained from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) on 47 patients. The patients completed measures of pain intensity, affective dimension of pain, pain location, psychological stress, heightened somatic awareness, depression, catastrophizing, self-efficacy, fear of movement (re)injury, and physical disability. After three months of physiotherapy interventions, the outcome of quality of life was measured with the Short Form Health survey (SF-12). All variables were entered in a multiple regression analysis, after controlling for age and sex.

Results. Forty patients (85%) completed the trial. The self-efficacy scale (SES) was the only variable in the model that significantly explained the fraction of the SF12-score. The correlation between the SES and SF-12 was B = 0.64 (p < 0.01), and the adjusted R² was 0.40 (p < 0.05), which means that 40% of the variation in the SF12 outcomes was explained by the SES.

Conclusion. In order to improve health-related quality of life in patients with WAD, the present study stresses the importance of targeting self-efficacy. A special effort should be made to enhance these beliefs in the rehabilitation process.

Keywords:

• Whiplash associated disorders
• psychological factors
• depression
• stress
• self-efficacy
• pain
• quality of life