Does Participation in a Multi-Modal Activity-Based Program Impacts on Functional Recovery, and Quality of Life in Adults with Spinal Cord Injury?

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between relevant personal factors, participation in a multi-modal activity-based training program, and the program's impact on an individual's level of functional recovery, and overall quality of life in adults with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). A descriptive, correlational design was performed on a secondary analysis dataset to conduct this study. Inferential statistics were performed with mixed ANOVA's on measures of ASIA UEM and LEM scores, EuroQol, and SWLS to compare their means. The study proposed that participation in a multi-modal activity-based training program would be associated with greater functional recovery, less dependency on others for ADLs, fewer costly secondary diagnoses, and an improved quality of life. This study was undertaken to explore a relatively under-studied area. In the parent study a total of 29 cases were examined at a private outpatient clinic for patients with SCI in Southern California using a non-blinded, non-randomized controlled design over a 6-month period. These 29 cases were not evenly distributed, with the experimental group who participated in the multi-modal activity-based program having more cases (n = 21) than the control group (n = 8). Additionally, in the experimental group there were more men (n = 18) than women (n = 3) (Table 1). Within the experimental group, more than three-fourths constituted cervical site injury cases (n = 19) compared to thoracic site injury cases (n = 2) (Table 1). Further breaking down the level of SCI, participants with cervical site injuries were slightly older (µ = 35.74, sd = 14.13) compared to participants with thoracic site injuries (µ = 24.50, sd = 4.95)(Table 1). Given the small overall sample size, the skewed number of participants in the experimental group prevents any meaningful examination of group differences.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD Nursing

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation: Open Access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Nursing

Year dc:date.available

2014

Author dc:creator

• Gerber, Carolyn S., PhD, MSN, RN

• activity-based program
• Functional recovery
• Multimodal rehab program
• nursing
• quality of life
• rehabilitation
• Spinal Cord Injury

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digital.sandiego.edu/dissertations/454

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digital.sandiego.edu:dissertations-1457