Assessment of quality of life in relation to spasticity severity and socio-demographic and clinical factors among patients with spinal cord injury

Abstract

Objective: To assess the impact of spasticity severity as well as socio-demographic and clinical factors on quality of life (QOL) and to identify factors predicting poor QOL among patients with spinal cord injury (SCI)

Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study.

Setting: Tertiary care clinic in Istanbul, Turkey.

Participants: A total of 110 patients with SCI (mean (SD) age: 43.8 (14.7) years, 58.2% were males) were enrolled.

Assessments: The American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale (AIS), Modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) and Turkish version of the World Health Organization Quality of life questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) were utilized to determine the SCI category, severity of spasticity and QOL scores, respectively.

Outcome measures: The WHOQOL-BREF scores were evaluated with respect to the severity of spasticity, aetiology and duration of SCI, AIS category and method of bladder management.

Results: The mean (SD) physical health (41.9 (15.3) vs. 46.5 (10.9), P = 0.029), social relationships (45.6 (20.2) vs. 53.8 (17.3), P = 0.025) and total WHOQOL-BREF scores were significantly lower in patients with more severe spasticity. Multivariate linear regression analysis revealed that severity of spasticity was a significant predictor of decreased WHOQOL-BREF total scores, physical domain scores and social relations domain scores by 11.381 (P = 0.007), 11.518 (P = 0.005) and 17. 965 (P = 0.004), respectively.

Conclusion: In conclusion, addressing QOL in relation to severity of spasticity for the first time among Turkish SCI patients, our findings revealed a negative impact of the spasticity severity on the WHOQOL-BREF scores, particularly for physical health and social relationship domains.

Keywords:

• Spinal cord injury
• Spasticity
• Quality of life
• Modified Ashworth Scale

Notes

* This paper was presented in a poster session at the 8th World Congress for Neuro-Rehabilitation which was held on April 8-12, 2014 in Istanbul, Turkey.