Quality of life in adults with spinal cord injury living in the community

Study design: The study design used is cross-sectional descriptive survey. Objectives: The aim of this study is to describe the subjective and objective quality of life (QoL) of adults with chronic non-traumatic spinal cord injury (NT-SCI) and to compare the objective and subjective QoL of adults with chronic NT-SCI with adults who have a chronic traumatic spinal cord injury (T-SCI) and the general population. Setting: Living in the general community (non-residential care), Australia. Participants: The study included 443 adults with SCI (T-SCI, n = 381) (NT-SCI, n 62), all SCI >= 6months duration. Intervention: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Objective and subjective QoL domains-Comprehensive QoL Scale for Adults, version 5 (COMQoL-A5); acceptance subscale-the Spinal Cord Lesion Coping Strategies Questionnaire, version 1 Australia (SCL CSQ v1.0 Australia). Results: Despite demographic differences, only the objective QoL domain material (higher in NT-SCI) and the subjective QoL domain health (lower in NT-SCI) were significantly different between the SCI subgroups. In contrast, five of the seven objective domains and four of the seven subjective domains were significantly lower in the SCI sample as a whole, compared with the general population. Post hoc analyses suggested that aetiology of the SCI was not responsible for QoL differences within the cohort with SCI. Conclusion: On the whole, aetiology makes little difference to QoL outcomes after SCI. The QoL of adults with chronic T-SCI and NT-SCI fall significantly below that of the general population in most domains. Spinal Cord (2011) 49, 365-370; doi:10.1038/sc.2010.102; published online 10 August 2010