Abstract
Study design:
The study design used is cross-sectional descriptive survey.
Objectives:
The aim of this study is to describe the subjective and objective quality of life (QoL) of adults with chronic non-traumatic spinal cord injury (NT-SCI) and to compare the objective and subjective QoL of adults with chronic NT-SCI with adults who have a chronic traumatic spinal cord injury (T-SCI) and the general population.
Setting:
Living in the general community (non-residential care), Australia.
Participants:
The study included 443 adults with SCI (T-SCI, n=381) (NT-SCI, n=62), all SCI ⩾6months duration.
Intervention:
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures:
Objective and subjective QoL domains—Comprehensive QoL Scale for Adults, version 5 (COMQoL-A5); acceptance subscale—the Spinal Cord Lesion Coping Strategies Questionnaire, version 1 Australia (SCL CSQ v1.0 Australia).
Results:
Despite demographic differences, only the objective QoL domain material (higher in NT-SCI) and the subjective QoL domain health (lower in NT-SCI) were significantly different between the SCI subgroups. In contrast, five of the seven objective domains and four of the seven subjective domains were significantly lower in the SCI sample as a whole, compared with the general population. Post hoc analyses suggested that aetiology of the SCI was not responsible for QoL differences within the cohort with SCI.
Conclusion:
On the whole, aetiology makes little difference to QoL outcomes after SCI. The QoL of adults with chronic T-SCI and NT-SCI fall significantly below that of the general population in most domains.
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Acknowledgements
Christine Migliorini acknowledge the support of the Monash University Research Office, the Robert Rose Foundation, Independence Australia and Associate Professor Doug Brown, Austin Health.
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Some of the results reported here were presented at the International Spinal Cord Society 47th Annual Scientific Meeting, October 2008.
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Migliorini, C., New, P. & Tonge, B. Quality of life in adults with spinal cord injury living in the community. Spinal Cord 49, 365–370 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.2010.102
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.2010.102
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