LIFE SATISFACTION OF PERSONS WITH SPINAL-CORD INJURY COMPARED TO A POPULATION GROUP

Life satisfaction is thought to be the subjective part of quality of l ife, i.e. the feelings of the persons concerned about their functionin g and circumstances, In this study, life satisfaction of spinal cord-i njured persons living in the community is compared to life satisfactio n of a population group, Respondents were a nationwide sample of 318 p ersons with spinal card injury (response 60%) and 507 inhabitants of a large city in The Netherlands (response 42%), Life satisfaction was m easured using the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire, containing one ques tion about general life satisfaction and eight questions about domain- specific life satisfaction. Mean scores of general life satisfaction a nd of satisfaction with self-care ability, leisure situation, vocation al situation and sexual life were lower in persons with spinal cord in jury than in the population group, but satisfaction with family life w as higher, However, differences in general life satisfaction, satisfac tion with leisure situation and with vocational situation could be att ributed to differences in the composition of both groups, Satisfaction with self-care ability was lower in persons with tetraplegia than in persons with paraplegia, but we found no differences in other question s, Several relationships between life satisfaction and age and marital status existed, but they were more pronounced in the population group than in the group of persons with spinal cord injury, Time after inju ry and cause of injury were not related to life satisfaction variables , Uniformity in measurement instruments would facilitate comparisons b etween studies.