Health related quality of life of spinal cord injury patients attending at specialized rehabilitation centre

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the health related quality of life of the patients with spinal cord injury attending at specialized rehabilitation centre. Objectives: To evaluate the health related quality of life of spinal cord injury patients through the evaluation of physical functioning (PF), Role-emotional (RP), Bodily pain (BP), General health (GH), Vitality (VT), Social functioning (SF), Role-emotional (RE), Mental health (MH). Methodology: The study design was cross-sectional. Total 115 samples were selected conveniently for this study from Centre for the rehabilitation of the paralyzed (CRP), Spinal cord injury unit, at Savar. Data was collected by using of questionnaire and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) was assessed by the Short Form-v236 (SF-36v2) health survey questionnaire. The study was conducted by using quantitative descriptive analysis through using SPSS software 20.0 version. Results: Among 115 SCI patients evaluation, 97 (84.3%) were male and 18 (15.7%) were female where 63 (54.8%) were paraplegia and 52 (45.2%) were tetraplegia. Association found among age, type of injury, severity of injury with the eight components of SF-36v2 questionnaire. It was found that the individual with spinal cord injury had a poor physical health and mental health status where poor physical health status and mental health status claims poor quality of life. The subjects reported lower scores on physical health and mental health in all dimensions of SF-36. Conclusion: Spinal cord injury is a disastrous condition which causes individual’s quality of life declining. The spinal cord injured persons reported low scores on all of the SF-36 dimensions that characterize poor quality of life (QOL) among all. The study demonstrated that spinal cord injury greatly affects quality of life and gives rise to more problems, especially in the areas of physical and mental health.It is necessary to take steps to improve the physical and emotional status of persons with spinal cord injury, as this will eventually lead to improvement in their quality of life.

Key words: Health related quality of life (HRQOL), Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)