Quality of life of primary caregivers of spinal cord injury survivors living in the community: controlled study with short form-36 questionnaire.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the quality of life scores of primary caregivers of spinal cord injury survivors living in the community with healthy age matched-population based controls and to determine the relationship between some severity parameters related with spinal cord injury and the quality of life scores of primary caregivers.


METHODS
University hospital, rehabilitation centre.


METHODS
Fifty primary caregivers of spinal cord injured patients living in the community and 40 healthy age-matched controls completed SF-36 (short form-36) questionnaire forms. Questionnaires were administered by interviewers who were physiatrists and the authors of the present study. All the patients were rehabilitated by the authors and data about the duration of injury, lesion levels, ASIA scores, degree of spasticity, presence of bladder and bowel incontinence and pressure sores were gathered from the hospital recordings and/or by physical examinations during control visits when the primary caregivers were administered the questionnaires.


RESULTS
Quality of life scores measured by SF-36 were significantly low in the primary caregivers group compared to age-matched healthy population based controls. No significant relation was demonstrated between the quality of life scores of primary caregivers and parameters such as the duration of injury, lesion levels, ASIA scores, degree of spasticity, bladder and/or bowel incontinence and pressure sores respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
According to the results of the present study, being a primary caregiver of a spinal cord injured victim significantly interferes with quality of life; some severity parameters related to the injury however do not seem to have an additional impact on the primary caregiver's life quality.
Unalan
H
H
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Gençosmanoğlu
B
B
Akgün
K
K
Karamehmetoğlu
S
S
Tuna
H
H
Ones
K
K
Rahimpenah
A
A
Uzun
E
E
Tüzün
F
F
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires