Abstract
Study design
Cross-sectional study.
Objectives
To compare physical function, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and quality of life (QOL) between individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) caused by the Wenchuan earthquake and individuals with SCI caused by nondisaster trauma and to explore the relationship between physical function, PTSD and QOL.
Setting
Community, Sichuan, China.
Methods
Two hundred individuals with SCI (39 caused by the Wenchuan earthquake, 161 with other traumatic etiology) were surveyed. Physical function was assessed with the Spinal Cord Independence Measure-SR, PTSD with the PTSD Checklist-C, and QOL with the World Health Organization QOL-BREF. Independent sample t-tests and rank-sum tests were used to compare the two groups. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the relationship between physical function, PTSD and QOL.
Results
QOL of the study participants was at a moderate to low level, physical function was at a medium level. The prevalence of PTSD in the group injured due to the Wenchuan earthquake was 64.1% as opposed to 10.0% in individuals with other traumatic etiology. In the SEM, earthquake-related etiology was strongly related to increased PTSD symptoms which negatively affected QOL. Earthquake-related etiology was however also associated with slightly increased physical function which was associated with better QOL and less PTSD symptoms
Conclusions
Prevalence of PTSD in earthquake survivors with SCI was largely increased as compared with people with SCI of other traumatic etiology. In spite of this, the groups did not differ in QOL because of better physical function of earthquake survivors. Effective intervention for PTSD is still needed in earthquake survivors with SCI. Continuous rehabilitative measures to improve physical function and QOL in both groups are also recommended.
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Data availability
Data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank all of the individuals with SCI who participated in this study.
Fundings
The project was funded by Sichuan University (Grant number: 2101014401003).
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Contributions
All authors contributed to formulating the research protocol. XF coordinated the study, JL was responsible for collecting and analyzing data and contributed to interpreting results. JDR contributed to building the structural equation model. All authors wrote the manuscript and approved its final version and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.
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The study was approved by the West China Hospital of Sichuan University Biomedical Research Ethics Committee (No. 2017–469). The study strictly followed the basic principles of biomedical research: respect for human dignity, beneficence and justice. The researcher informed the participants of the contents of study (e.g., background/purpose/method of this study, risk/benefit for the participants.), and started the investigation after having obtained their authorized signature. The study participants could withdraw from the study at any point.
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Li, J., Reinhardt, J.D. & Feng, X. Physical function, post-traumatic stress disorder, and quality of life in persons with spinal cord injury caused by the Wenchuan earthquake versus nondisaster trauma: a cross-sectional modeling study. Spinal Cord 58, 616–625 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-019-0402-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-019-0402-1
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