Analysis of risk factors sociodemographic for the functional dependence of adults with spinal cord injury

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the odds ratio of risk factors of sociodemographic and functional capacity of adults with spinal cord injury. Methods: Analytical, cross-sectional, quantitative study accom- plished with a group of 47 people with spinal cord injury in hospitals and 27 in the household. The data were collected through a structured instrument composed of independent variables related to epidemiological and clinical data on spinal cord injury and dependent variables corresponding to the scale of the Barthel Index (BI). The data were analysed with the two-tailed chi-square or Fisher’s exact tests using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20.0 (SPSS Inc., USA). Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used as an estimate of the risk. The level of significance was set at a p value ≤0.05. Results: It was found that males (OR = 4.804, p = 0.041), the education less than ten years (OR = 3.000, p = 0.036), the hospital care (OR = 5.250, p = 0.002) and injury time less than six months (OR = 5.250, p = 0.002) are sociodemographic factors that are associated with the functional capacity of individuals with spinal cord injury. Moreover, the total dependence (p < 0.001) and severe dependence (p = 0.019) are associated with quadric- plegia. It was found that males (p = 0.041), the education less than ten years (p = 0.036), attention to hospital health (p = 0.002) and minor injury time less than six months (p = 0.002) are sociode- mographic factors associated with functional capacity of subjects. Conclusion: As a result, it was found that knowing the epidemiological and clinical factors of people with spinal cord injury is relevant to plan the nursing care. In other words, knowing the epidemiological and clinical factors of people with spinal cord injury is relevant to achieve the functional independence of these peo- ple, and it was demonstrated that the social determinants of health are interrelated and interde- pendent of chronic health conditions, as evidenced by the Care Model for Chronic Conditions.