Objectives
Prospective longitudinal study to evaluate the effect of physiotherapy on whiplash associated disorders (WAD).
Materials and methods
A total of 141 patients suffering from grades I–III WAD after a road traffic accident were employed. Validated neck Bournemouth
Questionnaire was used in order to look at the effect of treatment on the symptoms.
Results
The mean age was 40 (±14) years. The mean length of the treatment was 6 (±3.4) weeks. The mean individual effect size was
0.97 (95% CI 0.8–1.2). A total of 67% of the patients who started their treatment in the first 3 months post-injury improved
compared to 48% in those who started physiotherapy after 3 months (P = 0.025). In both groups the applied treatment almost halved the number of patients taken sick leave.
Conclusion
Physiotherapy is effective in the treatment of whiplash injury, especially in order to get the patients fit to go back to
their previous employment.
Keywords Whiplash associated disorders - Whiplash - Physiotherapy - Bournemouth Questionnaire