Quality Of Life Of Patients Following Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury-Cross Sectional Analytical Survey
Main Article Content
Abstract
Traumatic spinal cord injury(SCI) is the fourth most important emerging public health problem reaching epidemic propotions Apart from the physical disability, a SCI patient has the added burden of psychological, social and vocational burden which in turn worsened all the domains of quality of life. This aspect is not well studied in India, where there is lack of baseline statistics regarding the incidence of the etiological factors contributing to traumatic spinal cord injury . The main aim of the study is to assess quality of life of patient in relation to various variables so that specific health care policies can be adopted to mainstream such patient to the society.
METHODS
A cross sectional analytical questionnaire survey was conducted among 50 patients of SCI selected on per inclusion criteria from Neurosurgery Department, Govt. Medical College Kottayam between June 2022 and June 2023.Quality of life(QOL) were assessed by WHO BREF questionnaire .The influence of demographic variables ,severity of injury and type of treatment on Quality of life were analyzed using nonparametric statistics .
RESULT
Out of 50 patient studied, majority (28%) were in 56 -65 years age group .Mean age was studied 46.2 ± 15. 38% of patients had complete SCI. The cause of spinal cord injury was road traffic accident(34%).Completeness of SCI,mode of treatment , employment status ,education of patient significantly influenced quality of life (p = 0.02, p=.016, p =
0.052, p = 0.001 and p = 0.046 respectively)
CONCLUSION
Complete spinal cord injury significantly reduced the quality of life. Thus to conclude the quality of life is an important area that need to be addressed and not neglected. The study will be an eyeopener for health authorities in kerala where there is no base line data addressing the issue of caregiver burden.We hope that though our study was a survey done on small size population attending a tertiary centre, this study will guide future experimental research which would be relevant in health policy making in Kerala as well as in India. The study results will also motivate the society in community based rehabilitation in the form of support groups which reduces the economic and psychological burden and also is an eyeopener to adopt specific preventive measure to reduce road traffic accidents and formulate specific health care policies .The study also reiterates the need for SCI registry which is lacking in India.
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References
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