Demographic profile of spinal cord injury : a retrospective study

Abstract

Purpose: To find out the demographic profile of spinal cord injury patients at CRP. Objectives: The aim of this study was to find out the age, gender, causes, type, marital status, educational status and living area of SCI patients. Methodology: The study design was cross sectional. The sample size was 426 and purposive sampling technique was used for sample selection who was admitted in Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralyzed (CRP) in Bangladesh which is the largest spinal cord injury rehabilitation centre in South Asia. Data was collected by a standard questionnaire and it was analyzed by SPSS software version 16.0. Results: Among 426 spinal cord injury patients, most of the patients were young. The age range are 32-45 age and male 87% (n=374) are predominantly higher than female 12.1% (n=52). Majority of the participants were came from rural area (83.8%) and they were farmer 28.4% (n=121). Complete paraplegia was (32.4%), incomplete paraplegia was (24.9%), complete tetraplegia was (23.7%) and incomplete tetraplegia was (19%). The skeletal level of Cervical was most common and then thoracic then lumber level. The skeletal level of cervical were 35% (n=149), thoracic were 31.2% (n=133), lumber 21.1% (n=90) and no 12.7% (n=54). Most of the patients were from low socio economic condition and low educational level. Conclusion: From the study it can be concluded that most of the participants were village people. So they cannot understand the preventative measure of SCI. The study may help to provide awareness among the people of Bangladesh. And also express the vulnerable cause, occupation which is responsible for the spinal cord injury. So SCI can be reduced through taking preventative measure.