Health-related quality of life in people with spinal cord injuries who have neurogenic bowel dysfunction

Abstract

Background: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a life-changing event that affects individuals with various complications due to SCI. Among these, one of the prevalent complications linked to SCI is neurogenic bowel dysfunction. NBD affects health related quality of life through complications like incontinence and depression. Objective: To determine the health-related quality of life in people with spinal cord injuries who have neurogenic bowel dysfunction. Methodology: The cross-sectional study conducted a purposive sampling method. The study population comprised people with spinal cord injury. A total of 56 participants were purposively selected for the study. Data was collected by using neurogenic bowel dysfunction (NBD) questionnaire developed to evaluate the severity of neurogenic bowel dysfunction. A Short-From (SF 12) was designed to measure the health-related quality of life in people with spinal cord injury. Results: A total of 56 participants with spinal cord injury (39.3%) had moderate sever of neurogenic bowel dysfunction. The severity of neurogenic bowel dysfunction impacts with the physical component summary score and mental component summary score in health-related quality of life in people with spinal cord injury. The results also showed that both the physical and mental component summary score SF-12 score below 50 indicates below-average health-related quality of life. Conclusion: Severity of neurogenic bowel dysfunction impacts with the health-related quality of life in people with spinal cord injury, especially in both physical and mental component summary score. Key words: Spinal cord injury, neurogenic bowel dysfunction, health -related quality of life.