PREDICTORS OF HEALTH-STATUS AND LIFE SATISFACTION IN SPINAL-CORD INJURY

Objective: To analyze relationships between injury-related variables, demographic variables, functional health status, and life satisfaction of people with spinal cord injury (SCI). Design: Cross-sectional surv ey. Setting: A community in the Netherlands. Subjects: Three hundred e ighteen people with SCI, aged 18 to 65 years. Mean age was 39.4 years and mean time after injury was 3.6 years. Main Outcome Measures: Healt h status was measured with the SIP68. Its six scales were aggregated t o three dimensions, measuring physical, psychologic, and social functi oning. Life satisfaction was measured with the Life Satisfaction Quest ionnaire. Data were analyzed by path analysis using LISREL V8. Results : Obtained scores showed that respondents suffered from serious limita tions in physical functioning and social functioning, had only a few l imitations in psychologic functioning, and were satisfied with their l ives in general and with most life domains. Physical functioning was a ccurately predicted by injury-related variables, but psychologic funct ioning was not. Next to level and completeness of the injury, the numb er of secondary complications turned out to be a predictor of function al health. In a path model that had a close fit with the data, injury- related variables were related to health status but not to life satisf action. Social functioning (-.48), marital status (-.38), psychologic functioning (-.19), and age (-.16) were significant predictors of life satisfaction (total R-2 = .44). Conclusions: This study points out th e high prevalence of secondary complications and their importance to t he health status of people with SCI. Level of social and psychologic f unctioning are more important predictors of life satisfaction than the seriousness of the injury. (C) 1998 by the American Congress of Rehab ilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and R ehabilitation.