Abstract
Study design
Longitudinal community survey.
Objectives
To describe the treatment for secondary health conditions as reported by individuals living with spinal cord injury (SCI) and to identify potential predictors of treatment.
Setting
Community (people with SCI living in Switzerland).
Methods
Data on the frequency, severity, and treatment of 14 common health conditions (HCs) in the past three months were collected in two surveys by the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury (SwiSCI) cohort study, in 2012 and 2017. Variation in treatment was analyzed using descriptive statistics, by survey period and severity of HC. Conditional multilevel random-effects logistic regression was used to describe differences in self-reported treatment with respect to sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors in addition to SCI characteristics and severity and number of HCs.
Results
Severe or chronic autonomic dysreflexia and sleep problems showed in the self-report as the HCs with the lowest occurrence/frequency of treatment. Across all HCs, higher age, shorter time since injury, the total number of HCs, and level of severity were associated with a higher propensity for reporting treatment. Individuals with severe financial difficulties additionally had 1.40 greater odds of receiving treatment (95% CI 1.09–1.80).
Conclusions
This study identified systematic differences in the report of HCs and their treatment within the Swiss SCI community. This study thus provides a basis to guide future research on identifying targets of intervention for long-term clinical management of SCI.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the SwiSCI Steering Committee with its members Xavier Jordan, Fabienne Reynard (Clinique Romande de Réadaptation, Sion); Michael Baumberger, Hans Peter Gmünder (Swiss Paraplegic Center, Nottwil); Armin Curt, Martin Schubert (University Clinic Balgrist, Zürich); Margret Hund-Georgiadis, Kerstin Hug (REHAB Basel, Basel); Laurent Prince (Swiss Paraplegic Association, Nottwil); Heidi Hanselmann (Swiss Paraplegic Foundation, Nottwil); Daniel Joggi (Representative of persons with SCI); Nadja Münzel (Parahelp, Nottwil); Mirjam Brach, Gerold Stucki (Swiss Paraplegic Research, Nottwil); Armin Gemperli (SwiSCI Coordination Group at Swiss Paraplegic Research, Nottwil).
Funding
SwiSCI is hosted and funded by Swiss Paraplegic Research.
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KC and MWGB were responsible for designing and planning the conceptual framework of the present study. AB, KC, and MWGB were responsible for data analysis, interpretation, and development of the present manuscript. IEH, KH, XJ, and MS provided clinical support, feedback on the manuscript, and support in data collection at their respective clinics. JC contributed critical feedback on the manuscript. All authors participated in a critical revision of this manuscript for important intellectual content and ultimately approved of the final version based on this submission.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
Ethical approval for Survey 2012 was granted by the principal ethics committee on research involving humans of the Canton of Lucerne (KEK Luzern, internal application 11042, approved 28.06.2011) and subsequently endorsed by the additional involved cantonal ethics committees of Cantons Basel-Stadt (EK Basel, internal application 306/11, approved 06.09.2011) and Valais (CCVEM Sion, internal application CCVEM042/11, approved 06.12.2011). Ethical approval for Survey 2017 was granted by the leading ethical institution Ethikkommision Nordwest-und Zentralschweiz (EKNZ, Project-ID: 11042 PB_2016-02608, approved Dec 2016). We certify that all applicable institutional and governmental regulations concerning the ethical use of human volunteers were followed during the course of this research.
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Buzzell, A., Camargos, K.C., Chamberlain, J.D. et al. Self-reports of treatment for secondary health conditions: results from a longitudinal community survey in spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord 59, 389–397 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-020-00596-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-020-00596-z
