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Título

SEXUAL LIFE AND VOCATIONAL SITUATION ARE THE WORST DOMAINS IN LIFE SATISFACTION OF PATIENTS WITH SPINAL CORD INJURY

Resumo

Introduction:Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to severe physical and psychological impairments. Enhancing life satisfaction (LS) is the goal of management of patients with SCI. Life Satisfaction Questionnaire-9 (LiSat-9) is a multiple-item rating scales with 1 question about satisfaction with life as a whole and 8 questions about satisfaction with different life domains: self-care ability, leisure time, vocational situation, financial situation, sexual life, partnership relations, family life and contact with friends. We sought to evaluate LS in different domains in SCI patients.
Methods:A consecutive series of 348 patients with traumatic SCI were included. Demographic characteristics, such as gender, age, duration and cause of SCI, educational level, employment status, marital status, neurological injury level and American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (ASIA) were evaluated. LS was measured with the LiSat-9 questionnaire. Each question was scored on a 6-point scale: very unsatisfied, unsatisfied, rather unsatisfied, rather satisfied, satisfied, and very satisfied. Data were expressed as means ± standard deviation (SD), medians and interquartile ranges or absolute values and fractions. LiSat-9 item score were dichotomized into dissatisfied (scores 1-4) and satisfied (scores 5-6). The Student t or Mann-Whitney test were used to compare continuous variables, while categorical variables were compared using the Fisher’s exact or chi-square test.
Results:
Conclusions
Sexual life and vocational situation are the worst domains in LS of patients with spinal cord injury. Rehabilitation programmes should focus attention in these domains to improve quality of life in patients with SCI.

Palavras Chave ( separado por ; )

spinal cord injury, life satisfaction, sexual life