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Table 3 Illustrative quotes for Theme 2 – Injury and disability in older age

From: I’ve got to be independent’: views of older people on recovery following road traffic injury in New South Wales, Australia

P10 (65–69 years, multiple arm fractures)

‘So, you can’t hit my arm and it’s really painful … I couldn’t drive for six months … I couldn’t lift the grandchildren … that was a huge problem and it still extremely hurts when I lift them on my arm’.

P2 (80–85 years, arm / leg injuries)

‘I was already suffering from a neuropathy … and also Parkinson’s and so this has really exacerbated it, compounded it … I’m typing [on the computer] instead of writing … fortunately the brain is still reasonably accessible’.

P1 (70–74 years, whiplash)

‘It’s getting harder to do [social activities and sport] because, I mean I do catch up with them, like for a barbecue and things like that, but it’s not the same sort of situation where we used to go out and we – we play a round of golf and have two beers and come home and things like that’.

P11 (85–89 years, upper limb dislocation)

‘Really, I mean, I’m now doing everything … I’m not terribly good on managing a crowbar these days and digging a deep hole, but otherwise I’m doing everything’.

P6 (70–74 years, fractured ribs)

‘I do have pain, but you know, I am at an age now, that you can’t do without any pain, but I would say it’s got nothing to do with that [the injury]’.

P10 (65–69 years, multiple arm fractures)

‘I am not quite sure what retirement means. I tend to do more than I ever did but I have retired … [the injury] accelerated it. Yeah, I wouldn’t have [retired] because I was actually working with my daughter and minding the children and doing other things and that stopped me from doing that’.

P12 (65–69 years, fractured sternum, whiplash, psychological impact)

‘I had a mortgage and I’m on my own, so I had to go back earlier... It just got to the point where I felt totally burnt out’.

P12 (65–69 years, fractured sternum, whiplash, psychological impact)

‘When I went back to work after my accident, the fear was, oh my God, I have to pay this mortgage off, and I’m going to pay it, it’s not much, but I had to pay it off, and I did’.

P8 (75–79 years, head injury, arm movement limitation)

‘When I’m doing something, I can remember what I’m doing, but given half an hour, nowadays, I’ve forgotten it... that’s why I thought I had Alzheimers and I wanted the test’.