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. 2011 Aug;92(8):1246-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.apmr.2011.03.006.

The relationship between prescription medication use and ability to ambulate distances after spinal cord injury

Ryan K Kohout  1 , Lee L Saunders, James S Krause
Affiliations

The relationship between prescription medication use and ability to ambulate distances after spinal cord injury

Ryan K Kohout et al. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2011 Aug.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the relationship between prescription medication use for pain and spasticity and ambulation distances while controlling for pain severity, injury severity, age, sex, and race in participants with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design: Secondary analysis of survey data.

Setting: Specialty hospital in the Southeast United States.

Participants: Adults (N=407) with traumatic SCI identified through inpatient and outpatient hospital databases.

Intervention: Not applicable.

Main outcomes measures: A questionnaire measured prescription medication use, ambulation distance, and other demographic data. A composite score of four 10-point scales from the Brief Pain Inventory was used to measure pain severity. Multinomial logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratio (OR) of ambulation distance using 1000 ft or more as the reference group.

Results: Persons with SCI who were heavy prescription medication users (defined as weekly or daily use for pain or spasticity) were more likely to be limited to distances less than 150 (OR, 2.82; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.57-5.04) and 150 to 999 ft (OR, 2.52; 95% CI, 1.45-4.39).

Conclusion: Heavy prescription medication use for pain and spasticity was related inversely to a person's ability to achieve community ambulation distances of 1000 ft or more.

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Conflict of interest statement

We certify that no party having a direct interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit on me or on any organization with which we are associated AND, if applicable, we certify that all financial and material support for this research (eg, NIH or NHS grants) and work are clearly identified in the title page of the manuscript.

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