Quality of life of spinal cord injured patients in Taiwan: a subgroup study

The major purposes of this study were to assess the quality of life (QOL) of spinal cord injured patients, and to assess the possible factors affecting the QOL. The survey was conducted from 1992-1993 by mailed questionnaires to members of Spinal Cord Injury Association of the Republic of China. There were 347 quality responses with the mean age of 37.5+/-10.2 years old and the mean duration of illness of 7.8+/-6.8 years. The questionnaire included five domains, physical mobility, environment-transportation: psychosocial adjustment, education, and economics for a total of 39 items. Each item contained a rating of 'importance' and 'satisfaction'. The quality of life index (QLI) was calculated by multiplying the satisfaction score with the importance score, then dividing by the possible highest score. The major results included: (1) the subjects had mild to moderate dissatisfaction with most items in five domains except psychosocial adjustment; (2) quality of life in those with complete tetraplegia (QLI= -0.41) and incomplete tetraplegia (QLI= -0.31) was significantly lower than that of those with complete paraplegia (QLI= -0.13) and incomplete paraplegia (QLI= -0.04); (3) both the severity of injury, and the post-injury working status were the major factors affecting the life quality of spinal cord injured patients in Taiwan.