One year following injury, pain and physical factors affect the likelihood of residual disability, but psychiatric symptoms may have a greater influence.

The article offers the authors insights on the study "Disability after injury: the cumulative burden of physical and mental health," by M. L. ODonnell, T. Varker, A. C. Holmes, and colleagues. She says that the measure of disability among participants hospitalised for injury used in the study was appropriate and suggests it would be useful if more detail on the model development had been provided. She states that the researchers help address a gap in understanding injury-induced disability.