Abstract
Study design
Cross-sectional study.
Objective
To identify demographic, injury, and behavioral predictors of emergency department (ED) visits and ED-related hospitalizations among individuals with chronic traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI).
Setting
An academic medical center in the Southeastern United States.
Methods
4057 participants who were at least 18 years of age and 1 year post traumatic SCI with residual neurologic impairment were identified from three cohorts: a rehabilitation specialty hospital in the Southeastern USA and two SCI Surveillance System Registries, one in the Midwestern and one in the Southeastern USA. The participants completed a self-reported assessment on ED visits and ED hospitalizations (yes/no) in the past 12 months. Logistic regression models were used to examine the relationship between ED visits/hospitalizations and eight behavioral indicators, including body weight, healthy diet, drinking, smoking, non-medical substance usage, prescription medication usage, prescription medication misuse, and the planned exercise.
Results
During the study period, 41% of participants reported having at least one ED visit and 21% participants reported hospitalization after ED visit in the past 12 months. High frequency of prescription medication usage, prescription medication misuse, and lack of planned exercise were associated with greater odds of at least one ED visit and at least one ED-related hospitalization, while smoking was only associated with ED visits.
Conclusions
Health care professionals should be aware that ED visit and related hospitalization prevalence remain high among people with chronic SCI, and there is significant need for intervention of managing risk behaviors and promoting healthy behaviors after SCI.
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Data availability
The data sets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to the privacy concerns of study participants and are not standardized to be in a publicly interpretable format.
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Funding
The contents of this publication were developed under grants from the South Carolina Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund (SCSCIRF) grant SCIRF 2017 SI-02 and from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) grant 90RT5003. NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services. The contents of this publication do not necessarily represent the policy of the SCSCIRF, NIDILRR, ACL, HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government or the state of South Carolina.
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YC was the principal investigator and was responsible for the analyses, research methods and results sections, and contributed to the discussion and conclusion sections. ND was responsible for the introduction and literature review, as well as contributing to the discussion and conclusion sections. JK was responsible for the discussion and conclusion sections and contributed to the overall development and editing of the manuscript.
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Cao, Y., DiPiro, N.D. & Krause, J.S. The relationship between health behaviors and emergency department visits and hospitalizations after traumatic spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord 60, 428–434 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-022-00791-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-022-00791-0
