Abstract
Objective
To assess the relations between measures of activity with dyspnea and satisfaction
with life in chronic spinal cord injury (SCI).
Design
Cross-sectional survey.
Setting
Five SCI centers.
Participants
Between July 2012 and March 2015, subjects (N=347) with traumatic SCI ≥1 year after
injury who used a manual wheelchair or walked with or without an assistive device
reported hours spent away from home or yard on the previous 3 days, sports participation,
and planned exercise.
Interventions
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures
Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) and dyspnea. Dyspnea was defined as shortness
of breath when hurrying on the level or going up a slight hill, going slower than
people the same age on the level because of breathlessness, or stopping for breath
when going at your own pace, or after about 100yd (or after a few minutes) on the
level.
Results
Dyspnea prevalence was 30%. Adjusting for asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease, mobility mode, race, and season, there was a significant linear trend between
greater SWLS scores and quartiles of time spent away from the home or yard (P=.0002). SWLS score was greater if participating in organized sports (P=.01), although was not significantly greater with planned exercise (P=.093). Planned exercise was associated with a reduced odds ratio (OR) of dyspnea
(.57; 95% confidence interval [CI], .34–.95; P=.032), but organized sports was not (P=.265). Dyspnea was not significantly increased in persons who spent the fewest hours
outside their home or yard (≤7h) compared with people who spent the most hours outside
their home or yard (>23h) (OR=1.69; 95% CI, 0.83–3.44; P=.145).
Conclusions
In SCI, a planned exercise program is associated with less dyspnea. An active lifestyle
characterized by greater time spent away from home or yard and sports participation
is associated with greater SWLS scores.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
AIS (ASIA Impairment Scale), BMI (body mass index), COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), OR (odds ratio), SCI (spinal cord injury), SWLS (Satisfaction with Life Scale)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 04, 2016
Footnotes
Supported by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (grant no. 90SI5007); the Merit Review (award no. B6618R); the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research and Development Service (grant no. I01 RX000792); and the National Institutes of Health (grant no. AR059270).
The contents do not represent the views of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the U.S. Government.
Disclosures: none.
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine
