Abstract
Study design
Retrospective cohort study.
Objectives
To evaluate the effects of two periods of rehabilitation among people with spinal cord injury (SCI).
Setting
Shanghai Sunshine Rehabilitation Center (SSRC), China.
Methods
A total of 130 people with SCI who received two periods of rehabilitation participated in the study. Outcome measures included basic life skills (15 items) and their applications in family and social life (8 items). Six factors were identified from the 23 items by factor analysis: self-care and transfer skills; basic life skills application in social life; cognition and emotion; basic life skills application in family life; walking and climbing stairs; and wheelchair skills. Standardized scores ranging from 0 to 100 were used to show the rehabilitation outcome in a histogram.
Results
Median scores for self-care and transfer skills, wheelchair skills, cognition and emotion, and their applications in family and social life improved significantly (7−80%, p < 0.01) over the first rehabilitation period, while no improvement was observed in walking and climbing stairs. Five factors showed a significant sustained effect (p < 0.01) upon admission to the second rehabilitation period, except walking and climbing stairs. By enrolling in the second period of rehabilitation, participants acquired significant additional improvement (5−43%, p < 0.01) in rehabilitation outcomes, except in cognition and emotion, walking and climbing stairs.
Conclusions
Two periods of rehabilitation were efficacious at increasing the abilities of basic life skills and their applications in family and social life. The potential benefits of continuous rehabilitation merit further research.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the authors upon reasonable request and with the permission of the SSRC.
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Acknowledgements
We express thanks to the SSRC staff for their help in collecting data and to all people with SCI who participated in this study.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [71673052], the China Scholarship Council [201506105030], and the Shanghai Pujiang Program of the Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau [17PJC003]. It was also a project of key disciplines construction from the Shanghai Disabled Persons’ Federation [No. 2015–139], was supported by the National Science & Technology Pillar Program during the Twelfth 5-year Plan Period [2014BAI08B01] and the 111 Project [Grant Number B16031], and was a major project of the National Social Science of China [No.17ZDA078].
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FSC was responsible for conducting the data analysis and preparing the article. JL was responsible for data interpretation. QZ was responsible for the study design, method implementation, and paper revision. HXX was responsible for data collection and contributed to the interpretation of results. YHY, CS, XYS, and ARW contributed to data collection. HFW, GC, and XHL contributed to data interpretation.
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Chang, F., Zhang, Q., Xie, H. et al. The effects of two periods of rehabilitation for people with spinal cord injury from Shanghai, China. Spinal Cord 58, 216–223 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-019-0349-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-019-0349-2
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