What factors have influence on persistence of neck pain after a whiplash?

Prospective longitudinal study.

To identify prognosis factors that allow us to identify patients with risk of developing chronic symptoms and disabilities after a whiplash injury.

The prognosis factors for poor recovery in acute whiplash are not conclusive.

We included 557 patients who suffered whiplash injury after road traffic accident and visited the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of Mataró Hospital (Spain) for medical evaluation and rehabilitation treatment. The variables were collected following a protocol designed for the study, and all patients were assessed through the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for the intensity of neck pain, the Goldberg Depression and Anxiety Scale and the Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire (NPH) for cervical column functionality at initial evaluation and 6 months later.

Factors related with VAS 6 months after the whiplash injury were women, age, number of days of cervical column immobilization, previous neck pain, self-employed workers, housewives, pensioners, students, presence of headache or dizziness, and VAS, Goldberg Depression and Anxiety scale, and NPH scores at initial evaluation. In multivaried analysis, it had been found that the variables that had influence on VAS 6 months after the whiplash injury were statistically significant for age, presence of dizziness, self-employed workers, and VAS and NPH scores at initial evaluation.

Our findings indicate that factors that allow us to identify patients at risk for poor recovery are age, dizziness, and initial evaluation of neck pain with VAS and cervical column functionality with NPH.