Journal Article

Exploring the long-term disability outcomes in Trauma patients: study protocol

Mushtaq, Saima, Hyder, Adnan A., Sahibjan, Fazila, Atiq, Huba, Abbasi, Ayesha, Khan, Uzma Rahim, Khan, Nadeem Ullah, Razzak, Junaid, Shaukat, Natasha, Jarrar, Zeerak, Haider, Adil, Ahmed, Tanveer, Merchant, Asma Altaf Hussain, Rasul, Shahid

2024

Overview

Objectives Trauma registries are essential tools for improving trauma care quality and efficiency, but many fail to capture long-term patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). Focusing on these outcomes is crucial for understanding the extent of disability patients experience and identifying potential post-discharge interventions to optimize recovery. Studies reflecting the experience from low- and middle-income countries in this area are limited. Therefore, we aim to develop a digital trauma registry in Pakistan to prospectively capture patient-reported outcome measures at one, three, six, and twelve months post-injury. Methods We will develop and implement a digital trauma registry at two tertiary care facilities in Karachi, Pakistan: Aga Khan University Hospital and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center. The registry will include all admitted adult trauma patients (≥ 18 years). Data collection will be conducted digitally using tablets, with mortality, level of disability, functional status, and quality of life as primary outcomes. Follow-up data will be collected through telephone interviews with patients and caregivers. We will employ descriptive statistics to summarize participant’s socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Additionally, we will perform survival analysis using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazard models and utilize mixed-effects linear regression to adjust for potential confounders for primary outcomes. Discussion The trauma registry will fill the current gap in knowledge regarding long-term outcomes among trauma patients in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study will delineate future direction for capturing post-discharge data, enhancing our understanding of recovery, and informing the design of interventions aimed at improving long-term outcomes.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,BMC
• Subject: Analysis / Data entry / Digital Trauma registries / Disabilities / Disability / Health Informatics / Health Policy / Health Services Research / Low- and middle- income countries / Medical research / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Medicine, Experimental / Mortality / Pakistan / Patient outcomes / Patient reported outcome measures / Public Health / Study Protocol