FATIGUE, INJURY-RELATED PAIN AND QUALITY OF LIFE AFTER SPINAL CORD INJURY

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Physiotherapy, College of Medicine (UCH), University of Ibadan, Nigeria

2 Department of Physiotherapy, College of Medicine (UCH), University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

3 Department of Physiotherapy, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan

Abstract

Objective: To investigate prevalence and significance of fatigue, injury-related pain and their association with Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) among individuals with spinal cord injury. Methods: A descriptive study involving individuals with up to one-year history of living with spinal cord injury and who were receiving rehabilitation services, including physiotherapy on outpatient basis. Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), Spinal Cord Injury Quality of Life- 23 questionnaire (SCIQL-23) and Neuropathic Pain Symptom Inventory (NPSI) were used to assess fatigue, HRQoL and neuropathic pain respectively. American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment scale was used to evaluate level of injury and severity of injury. Results: Total of 56 patients (37 males, 19 females) participated in the study. Mean age at injury was 46.1±16.2 years with 55.4% of the SCI resulting from trauma. Half of the participants reported significant fatigue with lowest mean score (30.3) in MOOD domain of SCIQL-23. Fatigue was associated with all domains on HRQoL- FUNC (r = 0.45, p= 0.001), MOOD (r = 0.30, p= 0.023), PROB (r= 0.44, p=0.001) and GQoL (r =-0.44, p= 0.001) including neuropathic pain (r= 0.29, p= 0.03). Conclusions: Fatigue is a concern among half of the individuals with SCI and is associated with neuropathic pain and HRQoL. Level of injury and severity of injury were not associated with the fatigue. Fatigue, pain and other clinical factors should receive focused attention from attending clinicians to improve quality of life post spinal cord injury.

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