Abstract
Sale P, Mazzarella F, Pagliacci MC, Agosti M, Felzani G, Franceschini M. Predictors
of changes in sentimental and sexual life after traumatic spinal cord injury.
Objective
To investigate changes and identify predictors in interpersonal functioning and sexual
life after traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI).
Design
Prospective, multicenter, follow-up observational study.
Setting
Subjects at home, interviewed by phone during a 6-month period, 3.8 mean years after
discharge from 24 centers participating in a previous epidemiologic prospective survey.
Participants
Subjects (N=403) with traumatic SCI.
Interventions
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures
Dependent variables: satisfaction with sentimental life and satisfaction with sexual
life compared with before the injury. Independent variables: demographic (age, sex,
marital status, vocational status), SCI related (severity, level, bowel/bladder continence),
car-driving ability, perceived quality of life (QoL), and impact of sentimental life,
social integration, and vocational status on QoL.
Results
Satisfaction with sentimental life was reportedly increased or the same as before
SCI in 69% of the sample, but satisfaction with sexual life in only 31%. Lesser satisfaction
with sexual life was reported by men than women (P=.002) and by married people than singles (P<.001). Significant predictors of sentimental life were perceived QoL and preserved
driving ability (R2=.195). Bladder continence was positively associated with a better satisfaction with
sexual life (R2=.368). Bowel continence did not remain a significant predictor of satisfaction with
sexual life in multivariate analysis.
Conclusions
The challenge of a comprehensive rehabilitation of SCI, addressing the recovery of
well-being including a satisfying sentimental and sexual life, requires identifying
new issues that should be considered in up-to-date rehabilitation programs. The results
indicate associations between driving ability and a better satisfaction with sentimental
life. Further investigations are needed to explore whether the relationship is causative.
Key Words
List of Abbreviations:
ASIA (American Spinal Injury Association), F/U (follow-up), GISEM (Italian Group for the Epidemiological Study of Spinal Cord Injuries), QoL (quality of life), SCI (spinal cord injury)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 01, 2012
Footnotes
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit on the authors or on any organization with which the authors are associated.
In-press corrected proof published online on May 31, 2012, at www.archives-pmr.org.
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
