Secondary conditions in spinal cord injury: results from a prospective survey.

Study Design: Prospective, self-report mail survey with two points of measurement one year apart.

Objectives: To determine significant predictors of pressure ulcers (PU) and urinary tract infections (UTI) in adults with spinal cord injury (SCI) over 2 years.

Setting: Non-institutionalized adults with SCI living in the United States of America.

Barriers and strategies affecting the utilisation of primary preventive services for people with physical disabilities: a qualitative inquiry.

Individuals with physical disabilities are less likely to utilise primary preventive healthcare services than the general population. At the same time they are at greater risk for secondary conditions and as likely as the general population to engage in health risk behaviours. This qualitative exploratory study had two principal objectives: (1) to investigate access barriers to obtaining preventive healthcare services for adults with physical disabilities and (2) to identify strategies to increase access to these services.

Using mixed methods in disability and rehabilitation research.

This paper will discuss the theoretical design considerations and the practical integration of quantitative and qualitative methods in disability and rehabilitation research, which have gained recent popularity among researchers of various disciplines. Whereas quantitative experimental and survey approaches allow researchers to draw generalizable conclusions that apply to a particular population as a whole, qualitative methods capture the depth of respondents' experiences in their own words. Qualitative methods may be used to explore new topical areas prior to implementing a population-based survey, or they may follow quantitative approaches to explain findings in greater detail.

Use of primary prevention services among male adults with cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, or spinal cord injury in managed care and fee-for-service.

Future research needs to clarify the biases in clinical practice and potential barriers that may exist at both the provider and health plan levels that exclude men with physical disabilities from routine preventive services. As the population of people with disabilities ages and lives longer, it is necessary that routine preventive services are accessible and made available to them, regardless of gender, disability, or health insurance type.

Use of outcomes information in acute inpatient rehabilitation.

Objective: To describe the ways in which rehabilitation outcomes information is used in the acute inpatient rehabilitation industry and the industry's views on the topic of public disclosure of rehabilitation outcomes information.

Design: A mixed-methods approach, featuring data from 39 informational telephone interviews with rehabilitation industry stakeholders followed by a survey of 95 randomly sampled acute inpatient rehabilitation provider organizations.

Results: Both the informational interviews and survey findings revealed that there is currently little stakeholder demand for functional outcomes information.

Access to health care services among people with chronic or disabling conditions: patterns and predictors.

Objective: To examine patterns of access to a variety of specific health care services among people with chronic or disabling conditions, focusing on factors that predict access to services.

Design: National survey of 800 adults with cerebral palsy (CP), multiple sclerosis (MS), spinal cord injury (SCI), or arthritis.

Setting: Respondents were surveyed in the general community.

Experiences with care co-ordination among people with cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, or spinal cord injury.

Purpose: To describe the experiences with care co-ordination of people with cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, or spinal cord injury; to determine barriers to effective care co-ordination; and to compare experiences across disability and health plan types.

Method: Qualitative, semi-structured telephone interviews with 30 people with cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, or spinal cord injury. Interviews focused on the care co-ordination experience of individuals in managed care and traditional indemnity health insurance plans in the USA and were analysed using NVivo.

The organization and financing of health services for persons with disabilities.

Americans with disabilities are rarely considered a distinct group of health care users in the same way as are older Americans, children, racial and ethnic minorities, and others who are perceived to have different needs and access issues. Indeed, to some extent individuals with disabilities overlap with all these groups. But they also have distinct needs with material implications for the organization, delivery, and financing of health care services.