Article
Predicting community reintegration after spinal cord injury from demographic and injury characteristics,☆☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-9993(99)90262-9Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective: To determine the influence of demographic and injury characteristics on the community reintegration of people with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design: Prospective cross-sectional and longitudinal examination of individuals with SCI.

Setting: Follow-up of individuals at 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, and 20 years after SCI who received their initial rehabilitation in a Regional Model Spinal Cord Injury System.

Participants: A total of 3,835 individuals who met the inclusion criteria for the National SCI Database were studied cross-sectionally, and a subset of 347 individuals who were also enrolled in a longitudinal study of aging with SCI.

Main Outcome Measures: Subscales of the Craig Handicap Assessment and Reporting Technique (CHART).

Results: Neurologic classification, age, years postinjury, gender, ethnicity, and education explain 29% of the variance in physical independence, 29% of the variance in mobility, 28% of the variance in occupation, 9% of the variance in social integration, and 18% of the variance in economic self-sufficiency.

Conclusions: Although these factors are inadequate to explain most of the variation in community reintegration (handicap) after SCI, they might appropriately be used to adjust for case-mix differences when comparing rehabilitation facilities and techniques.

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Supported by grant H133N50001 from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, United States Department of Education, Washington, DC.

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No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit upon the authors or upon any organization with which the authors are associated.

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