40% of Whiplash Pain Persists for 1 Year

Disability following whiplash trauma is an important issue and often hotly debated. A recent study by Buitenhuis, de Jong, Jaspers, and Groothoff (2009) sought, “To investigate the consequences of neck pain after motor vehicle accidents in terms of disability for work and the relationship this has with symptom and work-related factors” (p. 262).

The authors showed, “A total of 58.8% of the studied population with neck complaints was work-disabled after the accident”(Buitenhuis et al., 2009, p. 266). How the injury relates to the victims ability to manage personal and working activities has a large bearing on disability status and it is important that it is documented and measured. This paper outlined the cognitive aspects of neck injury.

In this paper, the authors reviewed one study that stated “Research has shown that up to 40% of neck complaints may become chronic and persist for at least a year” (Buitenhuis et al., 2009, p. 262). It has been shown that the chronic type of neck injury has the greatest impact on the victim as well as society.

Finally, the authors reported, “At 6 months, concurrent higher neck pain intensity and more concentration complaints were found to be related to persistent work disability” (Buitenhuis et al., 2009, p. 266). This study showed that cognitive complaints were also important and a major part of working disability. Clinical evaluations of patients with these types of additional findings are critical in the care and triaging of whiplash victims. Why guess when you can test? In God we trust, all other bring data.

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If you have recently been in a car accident, or had a personal injury, sports injury, or exercise injury, and are experiencing back pain, neck pain, knee pain, whiplash, headaches, leg pain, etc, our San Antonio injury chiropractors can help!

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Reference:

Buitenhuis, J., de Jong, P. J., Jaspers, J. P. C., & Groothoff, J. W. (2009). Work disability after whiplash, A prospective cohort study. Spine, 34(3), 262-267.