Health-Related Quality of Life in severely injured patients in Finland: an observational cohort study of 325 patients with 1-year follow-up.

After serious injury, many patients have permanent disabilities which reduce HR-QoL. Injury scoring systems intended for assessing the risk for death did not seem to associate with HR-QoL and are not, therefore, a meaningful way to predict the future HR-QoL of a severely injured patient. Recovery from the injury seems to be weaker in poorer educated patients and patients with spinal cord injury, and these patients may benefit from targeted additional measures. Although there were significant differences in baseline HR-QoL levels between different socioeconomic groups, recovery from injury appears to be similar, which is likely due to equal access to high-quality trauma care.