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Quality of Life (QoL) of People with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) in Western Greece

Received: 24 June 2019     Accepted: 15 July 2019     Published: 31 July 2019
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Abstract

Community living individuals with SCI face major health-related QoL challenges, especially in countries such as Greece, due to the lack of infrastructure and support networks. The aim of this study is to evaluate QoL of people with SCI who have already completed the rehabilitation program and live in the geographic area of Western Greece and to identify the clinical and demographic factors that affect QoL in this population. Thirty-six individuals with SCI living in Western Greece participated in this study. We used World Health Organization Quality of Life BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire to estimate their QoL levels. Additional data were collected by clinical measurements and a demographic questionnaire. The mean age of the sample was 45.1±9.8 years, the mean time since injury was 13.1±11.7 years and 89% of the participants were male. The mean values of QoL parameters ranged from 56.6±16.6 up to 100 (physical health) to 67.7±18.1 up to 100 (environment). Lower education level (p = 0.035) and married life (p = 0.006) are associated with higher QoL levels regarding environment and social relationships respectively. Additionally, as time since injury passes, the aspect of Qol that is related with social relationships improves (p = 0.04). The study documents relatively high rates of QoL in the population of individuals with SCI in Western Greece. Married life, low educational level and long time post injury are determinants of high QoL levels in this population.

Published in Rehabilitation Science (Volume 4, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.rs.20190401.12
Page(s) 7-12
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Spinal Cord Injury, Quality of Life, Physical Activity, Pressure Ulcers, Urinary Incontinence

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Ioannis-Alexandros Tzanos, Athanasios Kyriakides, Evgenia Gkintoni, Elias Panagiotopoulos. (2019). Quality of Life (QoL) of People with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) in Western Greece. Rehabilitation Science, 4(1), 7-12. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.rs.20190401.12

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    ACS Style

    Ioannis-Alexandros Tzanos; Athanasios Kyriakides; Evgenia Gkintoni; Elias Panagiotopoulos. Quality of Life (QoL) of People with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) in Western Greece. Rehabil. Sci. 2019, 4(1), 7-12. doi: 10.11648/j.rs.20190401.12

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    AMA Style

    Ioannis-Alexandros Tzanos, Athanasios Kyriakides, Evgenia Gkintoni, Elias Panagiotopoulos. Quality of Life (QoL) of People with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) in Western Greece. Rehabil Sci. 2019;4(1):7-12. doi: 10.11648/j.rs.20190401.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.rs.20190401.12,
      author = {Ioannis-Alexandros Tzanos and Athanasios Kyriakides and Evgenia Gkintoni and Elias Panagiotopoulos},
      title = {Quality of Life (QoL) of People with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) in Western Greece},
      journal = {Rehabilitation Science},
      volume = {4},
      number = {1},
      pages = {7-12},
      doi = {10.11648/j.rs.20190401.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.rs.20190401.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.rs.20190401.12},
      abstract = {Community living individuals with SCI face major health-related QoL challenges, especially in countries such as Greece, due to the lack of infrastructure and support networks. The aim of this study is to evaluate QoL of people with SCI who have already completed the rehabilitation program and live in the geographic area of Western Greece and to identify the clinical and demographic factors that affect QoL in this population. Thirty-six individuals with SCI living in Western Greece participated in this study. We used World Health Organization Quality of Life BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire to estimate their QoL levels. Additional data were collected by clinical measurements and a demographic questionnaire. The mean age of the sample was 45.1±9.8 years, the mean time since injury was 13.1±11.7 years and 89% of the participants were male. The mean values of QoL parameters ranged from 56.6±16.6 up to 100 (physical health) to 67.7±18.1 up to 100 (environment). Lower education level (p = 0.035) and married life (p = 0.006) are associated with higher QoL levels regarding environment and social relationships respectively. Additionally, as time since injury passes, the aspect of Qol that is related with social relationships improves (p = 0.04). The study documents relatively high rates of QoL in the population of individuals with SCI in Western Greece. Married life, low educational level and long time post injury are determinants of high QoL levels in this population.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Quality of Life (QoL) of People with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) in Western Greece
    AU  - Ioannis-Alexandros Tzanos
    AU  - Athanasios Kyriakides
    AU  - Evgenia Gkintoni
    AU  - Elias Panagiotopoulos
    Y1  - 2019/07/31
    PY  - 2019
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.rs.20190401.12
    DO  - 10.11648/j.rs.20190401.12
    T2  - Rehabilitation Science
    JF  - Rehabilitation Science
    JO  - Rehabilitation Science
    SP  - 7
    EP  - 12
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2637-594X
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.rs.20190401.12
    AB  - Community living individuals with SCI face major health-related QoL challenges, especially in countries such as Greece, due to the lack of infrastructure and support networks. The aim of this study is to evaluate QoL of people with SCI who have already completed the rehabilitation program and live in the geographic area of Western Greece and to identify the clinical and demographic factors that affect QoL in this population. Thirty-six individuals with SCI living in Western Greece participated in this study. We used World Health Organization Quality of Life BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire to estimate their QoL levels. Additional data were collected by clinical measurements and a demographic questionnaire. The mean age of the sample was 45.1±9.8 years, the mean time since injury was 13.1±11.7 years and 89% of the participants were male. The mean values of QoL parameters ranged from 56.6±16.6 up to 100 (physical health) to 67.7±18.1 up to 100 (environment). Lower education level (p = 0.035) and married life (p = 0.006) are associated with higher QoL levels regarding environment and social relationships respectively. Additionally, as time since injury passes, the aspect of Qol that is related with social relationships improves (p = 0.04). The study documents relatively high rates of QoL in the population of individuals with SCI in Western Greece. Married life, low educational level and long time post injury are determinants of high QoL levels in this population.
    VL  - 4
    IS  - 1
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Rehabilitation Department, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

  • Rehabilitation Department, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

  • Psychology Department, University Hospital of Patras, Patras, Greece

  • Rehabilitation Department, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

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