Factors that challenge health for people involved in the compensation process following a motor vehicle crash: a longitudinal study

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Arno J Akkermans¹  Ashley Craig²  Nieke A Elbers²  Ian D Cameron²  Keri Lockwood² 

[1]Amsterdam Centre for Comprehensive Law, Faculty of Law, VU University, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

[2]John Walsh Centre for Rehabilitation Research, University of Sydney, Kolling Institute of Medical Research, Royal North Shore Hospital, 2065, St Leonards, NSW, Australia

关键词: Claimants;    Traffic crash;    Mental health;    Anxiety;    Insurance companies;    Secondary victimisation;    Compensation;    Injury;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-015-1694-5

 received in 2015-02-01, accepted in 2015-03-26,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMotor vehicle crashes (MVC) are associated with diminished mental health, and furthermore, evidence suggests the process of claiming compensation following an MVC further increases distress and impedes recovery. However, further research is required on why the compensation process is stressful. The aim of the current study is twofold. The first is to investigate whether the interaction with the insurance agency is associated with anxiety. The second is to explore qualitatively aspects of dissatisfaction with the compensation process.MethodsParticipants (N = 417) were injured people involved in a compensation scheme after a motor vehicle crash (MVC) in New South Wales, Australia. Interviews were conducted by phone at 2, 12 and 24 months after the MVC. A suite of measures were used including compensation related measures, pain catastrophising and the anxiety/depressed mood subscale of the EuroQol. The association between predictors and anxiety/depressed mood as the dependent variable were analysed using forward logistic regression analyses. The comments about dissatisfaction with the insurance company were analysed qualitatively.ResultsThe strongest predictor of mood status found was pain-related catastrophising, followed by dissatisfaction with the insurance company. Dissatisfaction was attributed to (1) lack of communication and lack of information, (2) delayed or denied payments of compensation, (3) slow treatment approval and discussions about causality, (4) too much complicated paperwork, and (5) discussions about who was at-fault.ConclusionsFactors were found that contribute to anxiety in the compensation process. The association between catastrophising and anxiety/depressive mood suggests it is worthwhile further investigating the role of negative cognitions in compensation processes. People who score highly on catastrophising after the MVC may benefit from early psychological interventions aiming at addressing negative cognitions. Another important stressor is the interaction with the insurance company. Stress is associated with problems of communication, medical treatment, and claim settlement. This study additionally draws attention to some under recognised problems such as delayed payments. Pro-active claims management could address some of the identified issues, which could improve health of injured people after a MVC.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Elbers et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.