A prospective study on paediatric traffic injuries: health-related quality of life and post-traumatic stress.

OBJECTIVES: To examine children's reports of their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) following paediatric traffic injury, to explore child and parental post-traumatic stress, and to identify children and parents with adverse outcomes. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. ASSESSMENTS: shortly after the injury, three months and six months post injury. SETTING: Department of Traumatology, University Hospital. SUBJECTS: Fifty-one young traffic injury victims aged 8-15 years. MAIN MEASURES: TNO-AZL Children's Quality of Life questionnaire and the Impact of Event Scale. RESULTS: Short-term adverse changes in the child's HRQoL were observed for the child's motor functioning and autonomy. At three months, 12% of the children and 16% of the parents reported serious post-traumatic stress symptoms. Increased stress at three months, or across follow-up, was observed among hospitalized children, children with head injuries, and children injured in a motor vehicle accident. Parental stress was related to low socioeconomic status and the seriousness of the child's injury and accident (hospitalization, head injury, serious injury, motor vehicle involved, others injured). CONCLUSIONS: The children reported only temporary effects in their motor functioning and autonomy. Post-traumatic stress symptoms following paediatric traffic injury were not only experienced by the children, but also by their parents.