Psychological Morbidity and Chronic Disease Among Adults With Traumatic Spinal Cord Injuries: A Longitudinal Cohort Study of Privately Insured Beneficiaries

Abstract

Objective: To compare the longitudinal incidence of psychological morbidities and multimorbidity and estimates of chronic diseases among adults with spinal cord injuries (SCIs) as compared with adults without SCIs.

Methods: Privately insured beneficiaries who had medical coverage at any time between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2017 were included if they had an International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification diagnostic code for a traumatic SCI (n=6,847).

Results: Adults with SCIs (n=6847) had a higher incidence of adjustment reaction (7.2% [n=493] vs 5.0% [n=42,862]), anxiety disorders (19.3% [n=1,322] vs 14.1% [n=120,872]), depressive disorders (29.3% [n=2,006] vs 9.3% [n=79,724]), alcohol dependence (2.4% [n=164] vs 1.0% [n=8,573]), drug dependence (2.3% [n=158] vs 0.8% [n=6,858]), psychogenic pain (1.0% [n=69] vs 0.2% [n=1,715]), dementia (6.5% [n=445] vs 1.5% [n=12,859]), insomnia (10.9% [n=746] vs 7.2% [n=61,722]), and psychological multimorbidity (37.4% [n=2,561] vs 23.9% [n=204,882]) as compared with adults without SCIs (n=857,245). The adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of each psychological outcome were significantly higher for individuals with SCI and ranged from 1.18 (95% CI, 1.08-1.29) for anxiety disorders to 3.32 (95% CI, 1.93-5.71) for psychogenic pain. Adults with SCIs also had a significantly higher prevalence of all chronic diseases and chronic disease multimorbidity (51.1% vs 14.1%), except human immunodeficiency virus infection/AIDS. After propensity matching for age, education, race, sex, and chronic diseases (n=5884 matched pairs), there was still a significantly higher incidence of most psychological disorders and psychological multimorbidity among adults with SCIs.

Conclusion: Adults with traumatic SCIs experienced an increased incidence of psychological morbidities and multimorbidity as compared with adults without SCIs. Clinical efforts are needed to improve mental health screening and targeted interventions to reduce the risk for psychological disease onset in the traumatic SCI population.