Predicting community reintegration after spinal cord injury from demographic and injury characteristics

Objective: To determine the influence of demographic and injury characteris tics on the community reintegration of people with spinal cord injury (SCI) . Design: Prospective cross-sectional and longitudinal examination of individ uals with SCI. Setting: Follow-up of individuals at 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, and 20 years after SC I who received their initial rehabilitation in a Regional Model Spinal Cord Injury System. Participants: A total of 3,835 individuals who met the inclusion criteria f or the National SCI Database were studied cross-sectionally, and a subset o f 347 individuals who were also enrolled in a longitudinal study of aging w ith SCI. Main Outcome Measures: Subscales of the Craig Handicap Assessment and Repor ting Technique (CHART). Results: Neurologic classification, age, years postinjury, gender, ethnicit y, and education explain 29% of the variance in physical independence, 29% of the variance in mobility, 28% of the variance in occupation, 9% of the v ariance in social integration, and 18% of the variance in economic self-suf ficiency. Conclusions: Although these factors are inadequate to explain most of the v ariation in community reintegration (handicap) after SCI, they might approp riately be used to adjust for case-mix differences when comparing rehabilit ation facilities and techniques. (C) 1999 by the American Congress of Rehab ilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabi litation.