Project Summary

REHABIL-AID is a collaborative study carried out in Greece, Germany and Italy with funding by the DG Mobility and Transport (MOVE/C4/SUB/2011-294/SI2.628846/REHABIL-AID) with a three-year duration. In summary, the project involved a longitudinal study design and aimed to assess the psycho-socio-economic costs of severe injuries sustained in road traffic crashes (RTCs) as well as identify factors that affect the recovery process, one year after the injury. The study involved collection of data from adult patients, admitted to intensive or sub-intensive care units of selected hospitals in the three partner countries, with injuries sustained in RTCs. The study participants enrolled during a 12-month period starting from April 2013. Participants were monitored for one year after the date of admission to the intensive or sub-intensive care unit and were interviewed at three different time-points as follows: (a) at one month, (b) at six months, and (c) at twelve months. A variety of indicators were assessed at various stages as follows: a) morbidity indicators (e.g. prevalence of injuries, injury patterns, determinants of recovery and long-term outcomes), b) quality of life indicators (e.g. physical being, psychological being), c) cost indicators (e.g. overall expenditure – in hospital expense and after discharge expense, out-of-pocket expense), d) service utilisation indicators (e.g. type of care, length of care, number of readmissions), e) service satisfaction indicators (e.g. satisfaction from services, staff, outcome of care), f) social network indicators (e.g. level, type and frequency of informal care).

Upon its completion, the REHABIL-AID project achieved to demonstrate the feasibility of using a common injury classification scheme in countries with diverse health care systems. The project has also managed to generate new evidence on this public health problem and develop a multifactor model facilitating the assessment of patients’ complex needs. Most notably, the project has managed to translate the knowledge gained through its activities into efficient tools for the support of the victims and their families as well as into evidence-based recommendations for the information of policy makers. In particular, REHABIL-AID has produced supporting documents in the form of rehabilitation maps and care pathways aiming at offering guidance to patients and their families on the rehabilitation process. Likewise, REHABIL-AID has produced a set of recommendations addressing missing issues in the agenda of policy makers, which were formulated with the support of key stakeholders in the partner countries on the basis of collaborative tasks carried out during the project. This set of recommendations aims to support policy makers in the prevention and management of the health and psycho-social burden shouldered by the patients and their families during the rehabilitation process and suggest improvements in the care offered to the victims at various stages of the rehabilitation process. Most importantly, the project has managed to bring key stakeholders from various sectors into a joint discussion on opportunities to achieve national preparedness in road injury prevention and management.