Sammenheng mellom skader og livskvalitet, psykiske plager, søvnproblemer og subjektiv helse hos voksne i tre norske fylker.
Forskere fra Folkehelseinstituttet og Stavanger universitetssykehus har i denne studien undersøkt sammenheng mellom selvrapportert skade og livskvalitet, psykiske plager, søvnproblemer og subjektiv helse. Utvalg av studiepopulasjon ble gjort fra Folkeregisteret, og 74.000 pasienter fra Troms og Finnmark, Nordland og Agder deltok i studien. Studien viste blant annet at hvis man var blitt skadet én gang i løpet av de siste 12 månedene hadde man noe økning i psykiske plager, søvnproblemer og ensomhet, og lavere gjennomsnittsskår på livskvalitetsindikatorer og subjektiv helse. Prospektive, longitudinelle studier av høy kvalitet og stort utvalg av deltagere vil bidra til å undersøke og forstå årsakssammenhengen.
Leif Edvard Aarø, Eyvind Ohm, Jens Christoffer Skogen, Thomas Nilsen, Marit Knapstad, Øystein Vedaa, Ragnhild Bang Nes, Benjamin Clarsen, Knut-Inge Klepp
Studien er publisert i Health and Quality of Life Outcomes
Background: Studies examining associations between injuries and outcomes like quality of life and psychological distress are important to understand a broader range of possible consequences of injuries for population health.
Aims: The aim of this study was to examine associations between self-reported injury and quality of life, psychological distress, sleeping problems, and global subjective health.
Methods: The sample was drawn from the Norwegian National Population Register. Data were collected among the general adult populations in three Norwegian counties in 2019-2020 (response rate 45.3%, n = 74,030). Exposure variables were being injured during the last 12 months, cause of injury (if more than one, the most serious one), and functional impairment due to injuries. Outcome variables included measures of total quality of life, global quality of life, positive affect, negative affect, positive social relations, social capital (trust, belongingness, feeling safe), psychological distress, sleep problems, loneliness, and global subjective health. Data were analysed with General Linear Modelling in SPSS Complex.
Results: Reporting to have been injured once during the last 12 months was associated with slightly elevated levels of psychological distress, sleeping problems, and loneliness, and lower mean scores on quality-of-life indicators and global subjective health. Reporting being injured twice or more showed more pronounced contrasts to the reference group on the same outcomes, with Cohen's d-values (absolute numbers) ranging from 0.17 to 0.54. For having been victim to violence, d-values ranged from 0.30 to 1.01. Moderate functional impairment due to injuries was associated with less favourable scores on all outcomes (d ranging from 0.15 to 0.71). For strong functional impairment d-values ranged from 0.35 to 1.17.
Conclusions: Elevated levels of distress and reduced levels of quality of life are particularly associated with multiple injuries, being victim to violence, and functional impairment due to injuries. Prospective, longitudinal studies with high quality instruments and large samples, allowing adjustment for baseline values of outcome variables, and utilization of state-of-the-art statistical techniques, would bring this research closer to examining causality.