Abstract
Objective
To analyze and compare life satisfaction (LS) in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI)
living in 22 countries participating in the International Spinal Cord Injury (InSCI)
community survey. The study tested the hypothesis that there are differences in LS
across InSCI countries according to the countries’ economic status specified as gross
domestic product per capita purchased power parity (GDP-PPP).
Design
Cross-sectional survey.
Setting
Community setting (22 countries representing all 6 World Health Organization regions).
Participants
Persons (N=12,108) with traumatic or nontraumatic SCI aged at least 18 years, living
in the community and able to respond to one of the available language versions of
the questionnaire.
Interventions
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures
LS measured by 5 items selected from the World Health Organization Quality of Life
Assessment-BREF: satisfaction with overall quality of life, health, daily activities,
relationships, and living conditions. LS index was calculated as the mean of these
5 items.
Results
The highest level of LS was reported by persons with SCI living in the United States,
Malaysia, and Switzerland (mean range, 3.76-3.80), and the lowest was reported by
persons with SCI living in South Korea, Japan, and Morocco (mean range, 2.81-3.16).
There was a significant cubic association between LS index and GDP-PPP. Regression
tree analysis revealed the main variables differentiating LS index were GDP-PPP and
monthly income, followed by time since injury and education.
Conclusions
Life satisfaction reported by persons with SCI related mainly to their country economic
situation expressed by GDP-PPP and monthly income. The results of this study underscore
the need for policy dialogues to avoid inequalities and improve the life experience
in persons with SCI.
Keywords
List of abbreviations:
CART (classification and regression tree), GDP-PPP (gross domestic product per capita purchased power parity), InSCI (International Spinal Cord Injury), LS (life satisfaction), QoL (quality of life), SCI (spinal cord injury), WHO (World Health Organization), WHOQOL-5 (World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment-5)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 16, 2021
Accepted:
November 24,
2021
Received in revised form:
November 17,
2021
Received:
June 1,
2021
Footnotes
Disclosures: none
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.
