title: Assessment of the relationship between Quality of Life and Upper Extremity Impairment Due to Occupational Injuries.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Severe upper extremity injuries can affect the quality of life in patients and cause multi-factorial and long-term costs of disease. The aim of this study was to assess quality of life in patients with upper extremity injuries caused by work-related accidents.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study cross-sectional method was used in patients referred to the Occupational medicine Clinic of Rasoul Akram Hospital to determine their impairments. Patient's information including demographic variables, calculation of the impairment rate based on AMA Guide book (in terms of WPI), returning to work, and location of injury, work experience and type of injury. Then the quality of their life was assessed and interpreted using SF36 questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  203 patients were evaluated. Different aspects of the patients' life were not associated with age, gender and education of patients based on The SF-36 questionnaire. There was an inverse relationship between the percentage of patients' impairment and different aspects of life quality; there were also a significance correlation between impairment rate and physical performance of patients (p<0.001, r= -0.26), social performance of patients (p= 0.001, r= -0.24), pain (p= 0.005, r= -0.2), emotional health of patients (p= 0.006, r= -0.29), energy / fatigue in patients (p<0.001, r= -0.29) and the patient's general health (p<0.001, r= -0.27).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study shows that upper extremity impairment due to occupational injuries has an inverse and significant association with various aspects of quality of life.
authors.affiliation: 1. Occupational Medicine Resident, Occupational Medicine Department, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. mahdie.golchin2000@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Mahdie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Golchin
authors.affiliation: 2. Associate Professor of Occupational Medicine, Occupational Medicine Department, Iran University of Medical Sciences & Brain and Spinal Injury Research Center (BASIR), Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. drmsattarchi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Mirsaeed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Attarchi
authors.affiliation: 3. Occupational Medicine Specialist, Brain and Spinal Injury Research Center (BASIR), Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. elmirzamo@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Elham
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mirzamohammadi
authors.affiliation: 4. Assistant Professor of Occupational Medicine, Brain and Spinal Injury Research Center (BASIR), Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. m_ghafaari@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Mostafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ghaffari
authors.affiliation: 5. Associate Professor of Occupational Medicine, Occupational Medicine Department, Iran University of Medical Sciences & Brain and Spinal Injury Research Center (BASIR), Imam Khomeini Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. sabermohammadi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Saber
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mohammadi
keywords: Impairment; Occupational injuries; Quality of life; Upper extremity