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. 2022 Jun 29:54:jrm00302.
doi: 10.2340/jrm.v54.2040.

Physical Health Conditions in Persons with Spinal Cord Injury Across 21 Countries Worldwide

Vegard Strøm  1 , Grethe Månum  2 , Mohit Arora  3 , Conran Joseph  4 , Athanasios Kyriakides  5 , Marc Le Fort  6 , Rutger Osterthun  7 , Brigitte Perrouin-Verbe  8 , Karin Postma  9 , James Middleton  3
Affiliations

Physical Health Conditions in Persons with Spinal Cord Injury Across 21 Countries Worldwide

Vegard Strøm et al. J Rehabil Med. .

Abstract

Objectives: To describe the 3-month prevalence and correlates of self-reported physical health conditions in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) worldwide.

Study design: Multinational cross-sectional survey.

Subjects: Community-living persons with traumatic or non-traumatic SCI aged >18 years from 21 countries representing all the 6 World Health Organization regions.

Methods: The study used data from 11,058 participants in the International SCI Community Survey (InSCI). The survey, based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Core Sets for SCI, was conducted in 2017-19 simultaneously in the participating countries. The health conditions were reported on a modified version of the SCI Secondary Conditions Scale.

Results: Overall, 95.8% of the participants reported having experienced 1 or more health problems secondary to SCI. Having pain was the most prevalent problem (77.3%), followed by spasticity/muscle spasms (73.5%) and sexual dysfunction (71.3%), and the least prevalent was respiratory problems (28.8%). The participants reported a mean of 7.4 concurrent health conditions. Unmet healthcare needs, being a smoker, being a female, having a complete lesion, and a traumatic injury exhibited significant associations with comorbidity.

Conclusion: Physical health problems secondary to SCI are extremely common worldwide and demand investment in appropriate management, medical care and preventative measures.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Prevalence of health conditions. Three-month prevalence rates (percentage with 95% confidence intervals; 95% CI) of self-reported physical health conditions among 11,058 adults with spinal cord injury across 21 countries representing all the 6 World Health Organization regions participating in the International Spinal Cord Injury (InSCI) community survey.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Prevalence of the health conditions per country. Three-month prevalence rates (percentage) of the health conditions (a) pain, (b) muscle spasms/spasticity, (c) sexual dysfunction and (d) bowel dysfunction for the 21 countries of the International Spinal Cord Injury (InSCI) community survey (n = 11,058). Darker colour indicates higher prevalence.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Severity of health conditions per country. Summary scores (with 95% confidence intervals; 95% CI) of the health conditions (n = 14), ranging from 0 to 56, in which a higher score indicates more severe problems, for participants (n = 11,058) of the 21 countries of the International Spinal Cord Injury (InSCI) community survey. The rated health conditions were; Pain, Muscle spasms/spasticity, Sexual dysfunction, Bowel dysfunction, Contractures, Sleep problems, Bladder dysfunction, Circulatory problems, Urinary tract infections, Autonomic dysreflexia, Postural hypotension, Pressure sores, Injury caused by loss of sensation, Respiratory problems. Vertical dotted line indicates the overall mean value.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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