Musculoskeletal injuries and the effects on quality of life and social and emotional well-being in an Australian Aboriginal population

Background: Aboriginal Australians are very athletic, and this is evident with their participation at national and international sports and athletics. Studies have shown Aboriginal people have high prevalence of musculoskeletal injury. However no research has investigated the impact of musculoskeletal injury on weight gain, treatment, quality of life, and social and emotional wellbeing.

Methods: A total of 193 Aboriginal community members volunteered to provide information via an Aboriginal Multiple Injury Questionnaire. Participants were asked to self-report if they previously or currently have ankle, knee or back injury. If they had a current ankle, knee or back injury, they were then asked the relevant questions about their injury.

Results: Musculoskeletal injuries were highly prevalent, 60 (31%) had a current ankle injury, 52 (27%) indicated they had a current knee injury, and 87 (45%) had a current back injury. Participants rated their injury as painful, problematic, contributed to weight gain, and caused them to lose sleep, yet 70% (ankle), 63% (knee) and 48% (back) had no form of treatment for their injury. Quality of life questions were significantly moderately to strongly correlate with each other and with the social and emotional well-being measures.

Conclusion: Aboriginal people have high percentages of musculoskeletal injuries which are correlated with reduced quality of life and social and emotional wellbeing. Ankle, knee and back injuries can be debilitating, and many participants indicated that their injuries resulted in weight gain and loss of sleep. Although participants rated most measures high on scale, many had not had any form of treatment for their injuries which likely contributed to reduced quality of life and social and emotional well-being.