Abstract
Study design:
This was a cross-sectional questionnaire survey.
Objectives:
The objective of this study was to identify the care-seeking behavior of persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) with respect to the various health care providers and ascertain circumstances that lead to situations where required care was not received.
Setting:
This study was conducted in the entire country of Switzerland.
Methods:
Statistical analysis of frequency of annual visits to health care providers by 17 specialties, and description of situations where health care was required but not received, in persons with chronic SCI living in the community.
Results:
Main medical contact person was the general practitioner (GP; visited by 88% during last 12 months). The physiotherapist (visited by 72%) was the health care provider with the most visits (average of 30 visits in 12 months). GPs, physiotherapists, urologists and spinal medicine specialists were often contacted in combination, by many participants, often for check-up visits. A situation where care was required but not received was reported by 53 (11%) of participants, with a substantially higher rate in migrants (29%). Main problems why care was not received were bladder and bowel problems and main reasons of care not received were regional or temporal unavailability.
Conclusions:
Individuals with SCI are frequent users of medical services. There is no group of medical specialists that covers all needs of persons with SCI, what emphasizes health care provision from a comprehensive perspective including a wide array of services. Instances with care required but not received appeared to be rare and more likely in participants with migration background.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to all the participants of the SwiSCI survey for their time and effort spent in responding to the questions. We thank Ingrid Tanner for editing of the manuscript. This study has been financed in the framework of the SwiSCI study, supported by the Swiss Paraplegic Foundation.
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All authors were salaried by organizations financially compensated by the Swiss Paraplegic Foundation.
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Members of the SwiSCI Steering Committee are listed before References.
The members of the SwiSCI Steering Committee are: Xavier Jordan, Bertrand Léger (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); Hans Georg Koch (Swiss Paraplegic Association, Nottwil); Nadja Münzel (Parahelp, Nottwil); Hardy Landolt (Representative for persons with SCI, Glarus); Mirjam Brach, Gerold Stucki (Swiss Paraplegic Research, Nottwil); Martin Brinkhof, Christine Thyrian (SwiSCI Study Center at Swiss Paraplegic Research, Nottwil).
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Gemperli, A., Ronca, E., Scheel-Sailer, A. et al. Health care utilization in persons with spinal cord injury: part 1—outpatient services. Spinal Cord 55, 823–827 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.2017.44
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.2017.44
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