Self-assessed secondary difficulties among paralytic poliomyelitis and spinal cord injury survivors in Japan.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the time course of secondary worsening of difficulties (SWD) experienced by postpolio and spinal cord injury (SCI) subjects in the general population.

DESIGN

Self-report survey.

SETTING

Multicenter study in general community in Japan.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 662 postpolio and 736 SCI subjects who had had contact with some rehabilitation facility.

INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Respondents completed a questionnaire about demographic factors, physical complaints, activities of daily living (ADLs), social participation, and a visual analog scale of time course for difficulties (VAST-D) devised for the present study in which the subjects drew a single curve to indicate the lifetime course of disability as they perceived it.

RESULTS

Signs of SWD in all extremities of the polio patients and in the upper extremities of the SCI subjects were visually shown by the VAST-D. Additionally, the prevalence of postpolio syndrome and SWD in the SCI group was estimated to be 55.3% and 45.1%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

SWD was visually shown by the VAST-D in polio and SCI subjects.