Recovery target priorities of people with spinal cord injuries in Korea compared with other countries: a survey.

STUDY

DESIGN

Cross-sectional survey.

OBJECTIVES

To identify which functional areas are important in recovery and which psychosocial factors influence life quality among persons with spinal cord injuries in Korea and to compare our results with similar studies from other countries.

SETTING

University-affiliated rehabilitation hospital.

METHODS

The survey was distributed to people with spinal cord injuries and captured their targeted functional recoveries and psychosocial goals that can affect life quality. The respondents were asked to place these in order of priority. Participants were also asked questions regarding factors they felt were important for restoring function, their expectations for recovery and to evaluate their health status and satisfaction with their quality of life.

RESULTS

Fifty-five people were tetraplegia and 45 people were paraplegia. The primary functional recovery goals included the recovery of upper extremity functions in tetraplegic persons and restoration of bladder and bowel functions in paraplegic persons. For psychosocial goals, stress management was the most important factor among both tetraplegic and paraplegic people. The two most important factors for restoring function were proper physical therapy and relationship with their clinician. About half of the respondents had no expectation of restoring their functions.

CONCLUSIONS

Restoring upper extremity function, sexual function, and bladder and bowel function has been a common concern in previous studies. Our result, however, showed sexual function was less important. Coping with stress was important for life quality, another finding that differed from other studies. Thus, there may be cultural and social differences in the priorities of the target functions.