title: Cell telephone ownership and social integration in persons with spinal cord injury.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the prevalence and demographic characteristics associated with cell telephone ownership and to investigate whether cell telephone ownership has a positive relationship with social integration.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional.
  
  
  METHODS
  Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Model Systems.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants (N=7696) with traumatic SCI who were entered into the National SCI Database and completed a follow-up interview from April 2004 through April 2009.
  
  
  METHODS
  None.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cell telephone ownership; Craig Handicap Assessment Reporting Technique Social Integration subscale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 73% of participants owned a cell telephone. Persons who were younger, employed, achieved education beyond grade school, and had computer and e-mail access were more likely to own cell telephones. Not owning a cell telephone decreased the likelihood of belonging to the high-social-integration group compared with the low-integration group (odds ratio, .509; 95% confidence interval, .396-.654). Persons with low or medium social integration scores were less likely to own a cell telephone than those who had high social integration scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this study, most participants owned a cell telephone, although 27% did not compared with 13% nonowners in the general population. Owning a cell telephone increased the likelihood of being more socially integrated compared with non-cell telephone ownership.
authors.affiliation: MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, USA. mroach@metrohealth.org
authors.forename: Mary Joan
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Roach
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Harrington
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Powell
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nemunaitis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D040421:Cell Phone; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*