Quality of Life in Traumatic Spinal Cord Injured

Abstract

BACKGROUND Traumatic myelopathies account for significant proportion of people with spinal cord injuries admitted to rehabilitation unit and it becomes important to assess the functional outcome of these individuals for formulating the treatment plan. The studies incorporating all the measures of outcome i.e., impairment, disability, handicap and quality of life with appropriate instruments in this population are sparse and very few studies have been done from our country. Hence in this study an attempt was made to evaluate the above through International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) model. OBJECTIVES 1. To assess the Quality of Life (QOL) in traumatic SCI individuals 2. To study the correlation between QOL and impairment/disability/handicap. METHODOLOGY A cross-sectional study was carried out on fifty patients of traumatic SCI visiting our centre over a period of one year and one year post injury. Patients were assessed by ASIA impairment scale, Functional Independence Measure (FIM), Craig's Handicap Assessment and Reporting Technique (CHART) and WHOQOL-BREF after screening with MMSE. RESULTS 90% of patients were males, more than half were in their productive years of life; 82% had incomplete SCI injuries and 76% had higher grades of impairment. Younger patients had better scores on FIM and all domains of CHART except economic selfsufficiency. All domains of QOL were negatively affected by SCI. There were significant positive correlations between impairment and disability, disability and QOL, disability and handicap. Different domains of CHART had variable correlations with QOL domains. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that SCI negatively influences all the conceptual components of ICF model. SCI affects QOL, activity and participation of an individual. Various factors like age, completeness of injury, marital status, etc., affects QOL of an SCI individual. This finding highlights the need for vigilance among rehabilitation personnel to look at these in every SCI individual and plan for appropriate interventions.