Mini project proposal for the Complexity Doctoral Training Centre
February 2010
Recovery from injuries of the neck and claims for compensation
Supervisors: Frances Griffiths and Sallie Lamb
Warwick Medical School
A common injury in road traffic accidents is ‘whiplash’ injury to the neck,
particularly when shunted from behind. There is some evidence from epidemiology,
describing the progress through recovery and final health outcome of individuals with
neck injuries, that recovery is slower for people who have a compensation claim
pending, There is little evidence as to how or why. The ‘myth’ that people
deliberately slow their own recovery has become common and can lead to
misunderstanding between people with neck injury and their health professionals
which can impact on therapy provided and received.
In this project there is the opportunity to use data collected during a clinical trial to
explore the links between compensation claims and recovery following injury to the
neck.
The Managing Injuries of the Neck Trial (MINT) was completed in 2009. MINT was
a randomised controlled trial to assess the effectiveness of early intervention based on
a stepped care model to prevent the development of late whiplash syndrome. The
stepped care consisted of and advice leaflet, followed by physiotherapy. 3500 patients
were recruited from 12 NHS Trusts. Data about neck pain, compensation claims and
many other issues known to relate to the outcome of a neck injury were collected at
base-line (on attending the Emergency Department after the injury). And at 3 months,
6 months and 12 months post injury.
The data has been entered into a database and checked for errors. The data is mix of
continuous and categorical data (e.g. age, score from a psychological assessment tool
or neck pain scale, categories of employment, gender). The data has already been
analysed for the clinical trial report. A copy of the full report from the trial will be
available to the student.
The student would need to manage this large data set, undertake basic statistical
analysis to understand the data (along with reading the analysis already undertaken).
Further analysis will use machine learning techniques.
The results of this exploration, is likely to lead to a peer reviewed publication.
Understanding these links will contribute to developing guidance for health
professionals providing therapy for people with neck injury.
A follow up PhD could undertake further analysis of the MINT dataset using
innovative statistical methods and develop these methods further for understanding
the complex interaction of factors influencing health outcome. The Clinical Trials
Unit of Warwick Medical School also has further data sets for analysis for testing
statistical methods.