Abstract
In previous articles on the Stockholm Spinal Cord Injury Study (SSCIS), we have reported the frequent occurrence of medical problems in a near-total regional SCI population comprising 353 subjects. This present study further investigates health-related issues in this SCI population, by a level-of-living survey that has been used annually on 8000–14000 Swedes since 1974. The health-focused version of this survey was used for data collection in those 326 subjects in the SSCIS who were residents of the Greater Stockholm area. Subjects of the SSCIS living on the island of Gotland were excluded because they represented a sociodemographically different (rural) population. The normative material consisted of 1978 interviews of residents of the Greater Stockholm area, provided by the Swedish Bureau of Statistics. Results show a higher utilisation of health care resources among SCI subjects, shown by higher rates of long-term sick leave and sick pension, and more treatment as inpatients, emergency room attendees, and outpatients. Pain, bladder problems, and psychological symptoms are more commonly reported by SCI subjects. Medications such as antibiotics, analgesics, sedatives, hypnotics and laxatives are used more frequently in the SCI group. In contrast, no statistically significant differences were found as regards reported prevalence of diseases other than SCI, including diabetes, hypertension and cardiac disease. The results thus verify the impression from our previous studies of a clearly increased morbidity among these SCI subjects. The increased morbidity seems to be accounted for by the SCI itself, or conditions directly caused by it.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
Levi R, Hultling C, Nash M, Seiger Á The Stockholm Spinal Cord Injury Study: 1. Medical problems in a regional SCI population. Paraplegia 1995; 33: 308–315.
Levi R, Hultling C, Seiger Á The Stockholm Spinal Cord Injury Study: 2. Associations between clinical patient descriptors and post-acute medical problems. Paraplegia 1995; 33: 585–594.
Thorslund M, Wärneryd B Testing/assessing question quality. Some Swedish experiences. J Official Statistics, 1985; 1: 159–178.
Thorslund M, Wärneryd B Methodological research in the Swedish surveys of living conditions. Problems of measurement and data collection. Soc Indicators Res 1985; 16: 77–95.
Wikman A, Wärneryd B . Measurement errors in survey questions: explaining response variability. Soc Indicators Res 1990; 22: 199–212.
Lindström H . Non-Response Errors in Sample Surveys. SCB Publ., Örebro, Sweden, 1983.
The Living Conditions of the Social Assistance Clients. Report No 52, Living Conditions. SCB Publ., Ôrebro, Sweden, 1987.
The Annual Level-of-Living Survey. SCB Publ., Örebro, Sweden, 1990.
Fleiss J L . Statistical Methods for Rates and Proportions, 2nd edn. John Wiley & Sons: New York, 1981.
Hosmer D W, Lemeshow S . Applied Logistic Regression. John Wiley & Sons: New York, 1989.
Duckworth W C et al. Glucose intolerance due to insulin resistance in patients with spinal cord injuries. Diabetes 1980; 29: 906–910.
Duckworth W C, Jallepalli P, Solomon S S . Glucose intolerance in spinal cord injury. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 1983; 64: 107–110.
Bauman W A et al. Depressed serum high density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in veterans with spinal cord injury. Paraplegia 1992; 30: 697–703.
Yekutiel M et al. The prevalence of hypertension ischemic heart disease and diabetes in traumatic SCI and in those with lower extremity amputations. Paraplegia 1989; 27: 58–62.
Berkowitz M, Harvey C, Greene C G, Wilson S E . The Economic Consequences of Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury. Demos Publication, 1992, pp 81–90, 96-100.
De Vivo M J et al. A cross-sectional study of the relationship between age and current health status for persons with spinal cord injuries. Paraplegia 1992; 30: 820–827.
Whiteneck G G et al. Mortality, morbidity and psychosocial outcomes of persons spinal cord injured more than 20 years ago. Paraplegia 1992; 30: 617–630.
Frost F, Lee S B, Zimmerman K, Maynard F . Incidence and cost of emergency department visits in a large outpatient SCI population. J Am Paraplegia Soc 1994; 17: 229–230.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Levi, R., Hultling, C. & Seiger, Å. The Stockholm Spinal Cord Injury Study. 3. Health-related issues of the Swedish annual level-of-living survey in SCI subjects and controls. Spinal Cord 33, 726–730 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1995.152
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sc.1995.152