Health-related quality of life (HRQL) was evaluated in three subgroups
of spinal cord injury (SCI) patients: (1) persons who had sustained a
pediatric SCI (mean time from injury 20 years, age at injury 11.3 yea
rs, n=36), (2) newly injured patients at the beginning of acute rehabi
litation (mean age 35.3 years, n=31), and (3) patients with a chronic
SCI (mean time from injury 4.8 years, mean age at injury 35.2 years, n
= 34). All the patients were clinically examined and structurally int
erviewed with a list of questions dealing with details of anamnestic i
nformation about injury, its treatment, possible complications and per
sons past and present psyche-social condition. HRQL was assessed by a
generic fifteen-dimensional self-administered instrument (15D), The re
lative importance of the 15D dimensions and an overall judgement of he
alth status were measured by a 0-100 visual analogue scale. Average im
portance weights of the dimensions of moving and working differed sign
ificantly in the three subgroups. Patients with pediatric SCI assigned
the lowest importance for moving. The newly injured patients highly v
alued working capability. The HRQL scores of the patients who had sust
ained their injury in childhood were significantly higher than those o
f the newly injured patients or chronic patients. The tetraplegic pati
ents estimated their HRQL significantly lower than patients with incom
plete paraplegia. Of the three subgroups studied, those with pediatric
SCI were well adjusted on the basis of anamnestic information and sco
red high on HRQL when compared with the other two subgroups. Patients
injured in adulthood rated their overall HRQL lower and were often una
ble to return to work. Patients injured in childhood expressed better
performance in physical functions than patients who had sustained thei
r injury in adulthood, The subgroups did not differ in psychological f
unctions.