Quality of life after spinal cord injury caused by gunshot

Objective: To determine what effect gunshot-caused spinal cord injury (SCI) has on self-reported quality of life (QOL) and on the frequency of pain su fficient to interfere with day-to-day activities. Design: Follow-up, case-control design. Setting: Analysis of data obtained from the (US) National Spinal Cord Injur y Statistical Center from 18 funded Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems. Participants: Individuals with traumatic onset SCI (n = 1901). From these, 111 persons with gunshot-caused SCI were matched to persons with nongunshot SCI. Main Outcome Measures: Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Craig Handi cap Assessment and Reporting Technique (CHART), Medical Outcomes Study Shor t-Form Health Survey (SF-12), and an individual pain item from the SF-12. Results: No between-group differences were found on any of the QOL outcome measures. In contrast, those with SCI caused by gunshot reported that pain more frequently interfered with day-to-day activities than the matched comp arison group. Conclusions: SCI caused by gunshot appears largely unrelated to QOL, after controlling for demographic and medical characteristics associated with thi s group. Gunshot as a mechanism of SCI may place individuals at an increase d risk of subsequent development of pain that interferes with activities of daily living.