[Impact of physical activity on the autonomy and the quality of life of patients with spinal cord injury].
OBJECTIVE
To assess the effect of regular physical activity on the autonomy and the quality of life of Tunisian patients with spinal cord injury.


METHODS
The study relates to 25 paraplegic divided into two groups: 10 paraplegic sportsmen and 15 sedentary paraplegics among whom we assess the degree of the autonomy with the Functional Independence Measure and the quality of life with the quality of life questionnaire SF36 in its Arabic version.


RESULTS
The result analysis shows a significant difference of the total score of the Functional Independence Measure between the two groups, the sporting paraplegic having developed a better autonomy on the daily activities than the nonsporting paraplegics with a total average score of 115.10 against 93.87 (p<0.001). A significant difference is noted, mainly in the headings "personal care" and ',"mobility". Concerning the shutter "quality of life", the scores of various dimensions of scale SF36 were higher in the sporting paraplegic with significant difference in the headings bodily pain (p<0.01), vitality (p<0.04) and global physical score (p<0.008).


CONCLUSIONS
This study enabled us to show that the regular physical activity as well had a positive effect on optimization of the functional capacities of paraplegic as on the improvement of its quality of life, thus, supporting a better socioprofessional reintegration.
Tlili
L
L
Service de médecine physique et réadaptation fonctionnelle, institut national d'orthopédie Kassab-Ksar Saïd, 2010 La Manouba, Tunisie. leyla.tlili@gmail.com
Lebib
S
S
Moalla
I
I
Ghorbel
S
S
Bensalah
F Z
FZ
Dziri
C
C
Aouididi
F
F
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D010264:Paraplegia / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011788:Quality of Life; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*