Evaluating social participation among the people with spinal cord injury (SCI) in Dhaka District

Abstract

Background: People with spinal cord injury have faced many challenges in their community life after completing their rehabilitation. Some of them can engage in their social events in modifying way, but many of them can not engage in their social events properly. It also restricts their ability and quality of life. Objective: This study identified the level of participation among people with spinal cord injury in the community of Dhaka district. The purpose of this study was to evaluate social/community participation among people living with spinal cord injury. The study also identified the sociodemographic information, injury related information, socio-economic information and health status of the participants. This study also showed the association between demographic informations (age, gender, occupation and assistive device) and social participation of the participants. Methodology: The study was conducted through cross-sectional design in quantitative study among 70. Participants were selected by using purposive sampling process. Data were collected by conducting face to face interview and used the “Participation scale”. Chi-square test was used to find out the association between demographic information and social participation. Result:In this study, as a evaluation of social participation of people living with SCI in their community, it was found that, about 28.6% (n=20) respondent’s are in “No significant restriction stage (score: 0-12)”, about 43.3% (n=31) respondent’s are in “Mild restriction stage (score: 13- 22)”, and about 18.6% (n=13) respondent’s are in “Moderate restriction stage (score: 23-32)”. Besides, about 7.1% (n=5) respondent’s are in “Severe restriction stage (score: 32-52)” and about 1.4% (n=1) respondent’s are in “Extremely restriction stage (score: 53-90)”. In this study, about health status, it was found from total respondents (n=70) that, about 41.4% (n=29) respondent’s perception of health is fair, 32.9% (n=23) respondent’s perception of health is good and 12.9% (n=9) respondent’s health perception is very good. Besides, about 10.0% (n=7) respondent’s health perception is excellent and 2.9% (n=2) respondent’s health perception of health is poor. Conclusion: The result of the study will be helpful to know about the level of participation among the people with spinal cord injury who living in their own community of Dhaka district. The result will also very helpful to know about the demographic and health status of the participants. It is very essential to address their participation restriction. This study provides the basis for identifying levels of social participation of community living spinal cord injured people at individual perspective which open the need for foundations for country level participation data to inform policy and set-up rehabilitation. Key words: Participation, Social/community participation, Participation restriction, community, Environmental factors, Spinal cord injury, People living with spinal cord injury.