Abstract
Open tibial fractures remain to be an orthopaedic challenge, although there is a reduction of mortality due to improved surgical procedures. Consequently, the focus shifts to the assessment of quality of life after surgical treatment. There is a growing need for assessment instruments with good psychometric properties.
We used a sample of 221 patients, treated for an isolated open tibial fracture in different study centers, in order to analyse the German version of the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) in terms of reliability (Cronbachs α) and validity. Criteria were a visual analogue scale rating of the patients’ general quality of life (VAS) and the number of psychophysiological complaints endorsed in a symptom list (B-L). Additionally, we compared the NHPvalues with the surgical classification suggested by Gustilo.
The most prominent impairments the patients reported were related to pain and reduced physical mobility. These reports corresponded with the severity of the open tibial fracture (Gustilo classification). Reliability coefficients of the NHP scales ranged from 0.60 to 0.84. As expected, there was a correlation between the NHP scales and the scores of the VAS and the B-L. The study encourages the use of the German NHP version for the assessment of quality of life in trauma patients, thus enabling comparisons between the results of national and international studies on the topic.
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