Quality of life after spinal cord injury caused by gunshot

Abstract

Putzke JD, Richards JS, DeVivo MJ. Quality of life after spinal cord injury caused by gunshot. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2001;82:949-54. 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 sufficient to interfere with day-to-day activities. Design: Follow-up, case-control design. Setting: Analysis of data obtained from the (US) National Spinal Cord Injury 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 Handicap Assessment and Reporting Technique (CHART), Medical Outcomes Study Short-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 comparison group. Conclusions: SCI caused by gunshot appears largely unrelated to QOL, after controlling for demographic and medical characteristics associated with this group. Gunshot as a mechanism of SCI may place individuals at an increased risk of subsequent development of pain that interferes with activities of daily living. © 2001 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation