POST TRAUMATIC PARAPLEGICS LIVING IN ATHENS - THE IMPACT OF PRESSURE SORES AND UTIS ON EVERYDAY LIFE ACTIVITIES

This paper contains the findings of a scientific research which was do ne on post-traumatic paraplegics who live in the area of Athens, Greec e, and measured the impact of pressure sores and UTIs on their everyda y life activities. The target population was 127 individuals out of wh ich 98 were observed and interviewed. A semi-structured questionnaire which consisted of two parts used: the first part of the questionnaire included general questions whereas the second contained the Sarno Fun ctional Life Scale (SFLS)(1) which is a tool measuring the level of in dependence of disabled people. Sixty-two per cent of the population wa s male. The mean age of the sample population at the time they had the accident which caused the paraplegia was 31.5, while the median was 2 8.5. The majority of the subjects comes from the lower socioeconomic c lass. Traffic accidents accounted for the 55% of the occurrences of pa raplegia, falls for 37%, surgical complication for 4% and athletic act ivities for the remaining 4%. Forty-nine percent of the sample had bee n hospitalised in a rehabilitation centre, However, the multiple regre ssions used did not reveal any statistically significant relation betw een the hospitalisation in a rehabilitation centre and the paraplegic' s scores in any of the Sarno Functional Life Scale's (SFLS) variables. Instead, the multiple regressions employed yielded paraplegics' score s in the SFLS's everyday life activities that were negatively related to age (P=0.004) and pressure sores (P=0.021). The paraplegics' scores on the SFLS's indoors activities are positively related to the years since injury (P=0.048) and health education on daily fluid consumption (P=0.003). The scores of the subjects on the SFLS's outdoor activitie s are positively related to the years of education (P=0.008), the year s since injury (P=0.011), while are negatively related to pressure sor es (P=0.034) and UTIs (0.044). The subjects' scores on the SFLS variab les regarding social relations had a negative relation to sex, (female ) (P=0.0001), age (P=0.001) and pressure sores (P=0.019), while they h ave a positive relation with the years since injury (P=0.024).