Cited by 116Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitationPediatric Pain Management TechniquesBone fractures and treatments

Psychosocial Factors Predict Pain and Physical Health After Lower Extremity Trauma

Open access
Archer, Kristin R., Abraham, Christine M., Obremskey, William T.·2015·Clinical Orthopaedics & Related Research

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There has been increasing evidence to support the importance of psychosocial factors to poor outcomes after trauma. However, little is known about the contribution of pain catastrophizing and fear of movement to persistent pain and disability. QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: Therefore, we aimed to determine whether (1) high pain catastrophizing scores are independently associated with pain intensity or pain interference; (2) high fear of movement scores are independently associated with decreased physical health; and (3) depressive symptoms are independently associated with pain intensity, pain interference, or physical health at 1 year after accounting for patient characteristics of age and education. METHODS: Of 207 eligible patients, we prospectively enrolled 134 patients admitted to a Level I trauma center for surgical treatment of a fracture to the lower extremity. Sixty percent of patients (80 of 134) had an isolated lower extremity injury and the remainder sustained additional minor injury to the head/spine, abdomen/thorax, or upper extremity. Pain catastrophizing was measured with the Pain Catastrophizing Scale, fear of movement with the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia, and depressive symptoms with the Patient Health Questionnaire. Pain and physical health outcomes were assessed with the Brief Pain Inventory and the SF-12, respectively. Assessments were completed at 4 weeks and 1 year after hospitalization. Multiple variable hierarchical linear regression analyses were used to address study hypotheses. One hundred ten patients (82%) completed the 1-year followup. RESULTS: Pain catastrophizing at 4 weeks was associated with pain intensity (β = 0.67; p < 0.001) and pain interference (β = 0.38; p = 0.03) at 1 year. No association was found between fear of movement and physical health (β = 0.15; p = 0.34). Depressive symptoms at 4 weeks were associated with pain intensity (β = 0.49; p < 0.001), pain interference (β = 0.51; p < 0.001), and physical health (β = -0.32; p = 0.01) at 1 year. CONCLUSIONS: Catastrophizing behavior patterns and depressive symptoms are associated with more severe pain and worse function after traumatic lower extremity injury. Cognitive and behavioral strategies that have proven effective for chronic pain populations may be beneficial for trauma patients. Future research is needed to determine whether the early identification and treatment of subgroups of at-risk patients based on catastrophizing behavior or depressive symptoms can improve long-term outcomes. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level I, prognostic study.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1007/s11999-015-4504-6

Cites

68 of 68 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Archer, K. R., Abraham, C. M., & Obremskey, W. T.
Affiliations
  • Vanderbilt University Medical Center (US)
  • Lehigh University (US)
Venue
Clinical Orthopaedics & Related Research
Published
2015-11
Volume
473
Issue
11
Pages
3519-3526
ISSN
0009-921X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2163029039
Cited by
116
References
68
Citations by year
2026: 11 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 5
FWCI
4.57
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Pediatric Pain Management Techniques
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Bone fractures and treatments
Keywords
pain catastrophizing, kinesiophobia, depressive symptoms, lower limb fractures, traumatic injury, chronic pain, pain interference, physical health, post-traumatic depression
MeSH terms
Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Depression, Disability Evaluation, Fear, Female, Health Status, Humans, Male, Mental Health, Middle Aged, Pain Measurement, Prognosis, Prospective Studies, Risk Factors, Multivariate Analysis, Linear Models, Lower Extremity, Fractures, Bone, Catastrophization, Musculoskeletal Pain

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review