measurement of disability and its predictors among trauma patients: a follow-up study

conclusions more than half of the patients were disabled after 3 months of trauma. elderly patients, patient with severe trauma, and long hospitalization and patients with extremity injuries were high risk for disability. results the mean disability scores at 1 and 3 months post-injury was 30.3 (9.2) and 18.8 (8.3), respectively and there was a statistical significant difference between disability status at 1 and 3 months after trauma (p < 0.0001). the rates of return to work in 262 employed patients at 1 and 3 months after injury were 29% and 55.4%, respectively. the disability score showed a statistically significant correlation with injury severity score (iss) (p < 0.0001), work return (p = 0.033), intensive care unit transfer (p < 0.0001), trauma type (p = 0.001) and age (p = 0.004). also, age, iss, duration of hospital stay and injury to extremities were predictors of disability. patients and methods in this longitudinal follow-up study, 400 injured patients 15 - 65 years referred to shahid beheshti hospital in kashan and hospitalized more than 24 hours were assessed for disability status with the whodas ii 12-item instrument at 1 and 3-months post-injury. patients based on their disability scores were divided into 5 groups: none, mild, moderate, severe and very severe. work status was assessed at the 3-month follow-up with one question “are you back at work following your injury”. also, demographic characteristics and information about injury were gathered by a checklist. data were analyzed using chi-square, mann-whitney u, kruskal wallis, pearson correlation coefficient and logistic regression by spss software. the significance level was set at p < 0.05. objectives the aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of disability and its predictors at 1 and 3 months post-injury in kashan city during 2014 - 2015. background globally more than a billion people, 15% of the population, lives with disability and most of disabilities are caused by injuries.