How does knowledge about spinal cord injury-related complications develop in subjects with spinal cord injury? A descriptive analysis in 214 patients.
METHODS
Monocentric cohort study.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the acquisition of knowledge about spinal cord injury (SCI)-related complications in SCI patients.


METHODS
Level 1 trauma center.


METHODS
All patients with a traumatic or non-traumatic SCI were included in the study. Data were collected at admission, post-admission at 1 and 3 months and post-discharge at 6, 18 and 30 months. The discharge of all patients was between 3 and 6 months post-admission. Knowledge about pressure ulcers and bladder management was tested using the 'Knowledge' score. This score has a minimum and maximum of 0 and 20 points. To detect differences across the multiple time intervals, the Friedman test was used. Differences in the number of patients with poor (0-8), average (9-12) and good knowledge (13-20) between the different age classifications (age at injury) were calculated using a χ (2)-test.


RESULTS
A total of 214 patients were included. At discharge subjects had increased their knowledge score to 11.2 compared with 5.4 on admission (P < 0.001). After 30 months, however, the mean score decreased to 10.8 points. At the time of discharge, the number of patients who achieved poor, average or good knowledge were 48 (22.4%), 65 (30.4%) and 101 (47.2%), respectively. Subjects of ∼50 years old and tetraplegics had better (P < 0.001) knowledge compared with subjects of ∼50 years old and paraplegics, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
In this study, less than 50% of SCI patients had good knowledge about bladder management and pressure ulcers after being discharged.
Thietje
R
R
BG Trauma Hospital Hamburg, Centre for Spinal Injuries, Hamburg, Germany. r.thietje@buk-hamburg.de
Giese
R
R
Pouw
M
M
Kaphengst
C
C
Hosman
A
A
Kienast
B
B
van de Meent
H
H
Hirschfeld
S
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000592:standards; D003668:Pressure Ulcer / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D001750:Urinary Bladder, Neurogenic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D014552:Urinary Tract Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D055815:Young Adult