Table 3 Differences in quality of life and satisfaction ratings by age, sex, injury duration, injury characteristics and mobility category.

From: Australian arm of the International Spinal Cord Injury (Aus-InSCI) Community Survey: 2. Understanding the lived experience in people with spinal cord injury

 

Overall QOL (0-100)

Satisfaction with health (0-100)

Satisfaction with routine (0-100)

Satisfaction with oneself (0-100)

Satisfaction with relationships (0-100)

Satisfaction with living conditions (0-100)

Mean (95% CI)

66 (65, 68)

56 (54, 57)

59 (57, 61)

59 (57, 61)

66 (64, 68)

76 (74, 78)

Median (IQR)

75 (50, 75)

50 (25, 75)

75 (50, 75)

75 (50, 75)

75 (50, 75)

75 (75, 100)

Mobility category

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

 Ambulant

67.4 (65.5, 69.3)ref

55.2 (53.0, 57.4)ref

60.2 (58.1, 62.4)ref

58.4 (56.1, 60.7)

66.3 (64.0, 58.6)

77.0 (75.0, 79.0)ref

 Assisted or electric wheelchair

61.2 (58.3, 64.1)***

51.5 (48.6, 54.3)

50.0 (47.0, 53.0)***

57.0 (54.1, 59.9)

66.3 (63.4, 69.2)

72.9 (70.2, 75.6)**

 Self-operated wheelchair

69.1 (67.1, 71.2)

58.8 (56.5, 61.0)*

64.5 (62.2, 66.7)

61.7 (59.2, 64.2)

66.1 (63.6, 68.6)

77.9 (75.9, 80.0)

 p value

<0.0001

0.0004

<0.0001

0.04

0.8

0.0009

Lesion level and completeness

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

 Complete tetraplegia

64.3 (59.8, 68.9)

54.5 (49.3, 59.7)

51.2 (45.8, 56.7)ref

59.4 (54.1, 64.8)

66.1 (60.7, 71.5)

78.3 (74.0, 82.5)

 Complete paraplegia

66.5 (63.8, 69.2)

56.9 (54.2, 59.7)

62.6 (59.8, 65.3)***

61.8 (58.8, 64.9)

66.5 (63.5, 69.5)

76.1 (73.4, 78.7)

 Incomplete tetraplegia

66.1 (63.7, 68.5)

54.4 (51.8, 57.0)

55.7 (53.0, 58.5)*

57.5 (54.8, 60.2)

65.4 (62.7, 68.2)

75.2 (72.7, 77.7)

 Incomplete paraplegia

66.9 (64.8. 69.0)

54.9 (52.7, 57.2)

60.6 (58.3, 62.9)***

57.8 (55.4, 60.2)

66.1 (63.6, 68.5)

76.2 (74.1, 78.3)

p value

0.1

0.5

<0.0001

0.4

0.9

0.7

Cause of injury

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

 Traumatic

67.3 (65.9, 68.7)

56.7 (55.2, 58.2)

60.0 (58.5, 61.5)

60.2 (58.6, 61.7)

66.4 (64.8, 68.0)

76.7 (75.3, 78.1)

 Non-traumatic

62.9 (59.8, 65.9)

49.5 (46.1, 52.9)

54.7 (51.1, 58.3)

55.0 (51.5, 58.6)

65.4 (61.8, 69.1)

73.8 (70.5, 77.1)

 p value

0.015

0.0003

0.02

0.02

0.14

0.01

Injury duration

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

 Up to 5 years

62.8 (60.1, 65.6)***

54.0 (51.2, 56.7)

56.1 (53.1, 59.0)

55.1 (52.0, 58.2)**

64.9 (62.0, 67.9)

73.1 (70.3, 75.8)*

 6–15 years

67.2 (65.0, 69.3)

55.8 (53.4, 58.2)

59.8 (57.4, 62.2)

59.6 (57.1, 62.1)

67.0 (64.5, 69.4)

78.6 (76.5, 80.6)

 16–25 years

67.3 (64.3, 70.3)

55.6 (52.3, 58.8)

60.5 (57.2, 63.8)

59.5 (56.2, 62.9)

64.4 (60.8, 67.9)

73.4 (70.2, 76.7)

 26+ years

69.4 (66.9, 71.9)ref

57.4 (54.7, 60.2)

60.4 (57.6, 63.2)

63.2 (60.4, 66.0)ref

68.3 (65.4, 71.2)

78.1 (75.7, 80.4)ref

 p value

0.002

0.8

0.15

0.014

0.5

0.0004

Sex

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

 Female

66.7 (64.3, 69.2)

52.7 (50.0, 55.4)

57.1 (54.3, 59.8)

55.8 (53.0, 58.6)

66.2 (63.4, 69.0)

75.6 (73.1, 78.1)

 Male

66.5 (65.0, 68.0)

56.6 (55.0, 58.2)

59.9 (58.3, 61.5)

60.6 (59.0, 62.3)

66.2 (64.5, 67.9)

76.4 (75.0, 77.9)

 p value

0.7

0.11

0.11

0.024

0.6

0.8

Age group

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

mean (95% CI)

 18–30 years

73.2 (68.0, 78.4)

62.7 (56.9, 68.5)

63.8 (57.5, 70.0)

64.5 (57.9, 71.1)

68.1 (61.9, 74.3)*

75.7 (70.2, 81.2)*

 31–45 years

66.7 (63.6, 69.8)*

52.7 (49.2, 56.1)**

58.4 (54.9, 62.0)

54.5 (50.7, 58.2)***

60.6 (56.9, 64.3)***

71.9 (68.4, 75.3)***

 46–60 years

65.2 (63.0, 67.4)**

53.3 (50.9, 55.6)***

57.5 (55.1, 59.9)

56.6 (54.1, 59.1)***

62.0 (59.3, 64.7)***

74.0 (71.8, 76.2)***

 61–75 years

66.3 (64.1, 68.4)

57.1 (54.8, 59.3)

60.4 (58.1, 62.6)

61.4 (59.1, 63.7)**

70.3 (68.1, 72.6)*

78.7 (76.7, 80.7)**

 76+ years

69.6 (65.7, 73.5)ref

59.9 (55.6, 64.2)ref

59.8 (55.3, 64.4)

67.6 (63.4, 71.7)ref

73.9 (69.9, 77.8)ref

82.0 (78.7, 85.3)ref

 p value

0.001

<0.0001

0.007

<0.0001

<0.0001

<0.0001

  1. CI confidence interval, IQR Interquartile range, QoL quality of life.
  2. Outcomes were measured on five-point scales ranging from very poor to very good or very dissatisfied to very satisfied and were rescaled to range from 0 (worst) to 100 (best).
  3. The overall p values shown are from type-III F tests for any difference in mean outcome among categories of each characteristic.
  4. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 for individual difference against the reference categories.
  5. p values for age are adjusted for sex, duration, cause of injury, level and completeness and mobility category.
  6. p values for sex are adjusted for age, duration, cause of injury, level and completeness and mobility category.
  7. p values for injury duration are adjusted for age, sex, cause of injury, level and completeness and mobility category.
  8. p values for cause of injury are adjusted for age, sex, duration.
  9. p values for lesion level and completeness adjusted for age, sex, duration and cause.
  10. p values for mobility category adjusted for age, sex, duration, cause, lesion level and completeness.
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