Relationship of patient characteristics and inpatient rehabilitation services to 5-year outcomes following spinal cord injury: A follow up of the SCIRehab project.

Objective: To examine associations of patient characteristics and treatment quantity delivered during inpatient spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation with outcomes at 5 years post-injury and compare them to the associations found at 1 year post-injury.

Design: Observational study using Practice-Based Evidence research methodology in which clinicians documented treatment details. Regression modeling was used to predict outcomes.

Setting: Five inpatient SCI rehabilitation centers in the US.

Participants: Participants were 792 SCIRehab participants who were 12 years of age, gave informed consent, and completed both a 1-year and 5-year post-injury interview.

Outcome Measures: Outcome data were derived from Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems (SCIMS) follow-up interviews at 5 years post-injury and, similar to the 1-year SCIMS outcomes, included measures of physical independence, societal participation, life satisfaction, and depressive symptoms, as well as place of residence, school/work attendance, rehospitalization, and presence of pressure ulcers.

Results: Consistent with 1-year findings, patient characteristics continue to be strong predictors of outcomes 5-years post-injury, although several variables add to the prediction of some of the outcomes. More time in physical therapy and therapeutic recreation were positive predictors of 1-year outcomes, which held less true at 5 years. Greater time spent with psychology and social work/case management predicted greater depressive symptomatology 5-years post-injury. Greater clinician experience was a predictor at both 1- and 5 -years, although the related positive outcomes varied across years.

Conclusion: Various outcomes 5-years post-injury were primarily explained by pre-and post-injury characteristics, with little additional variance offered by the quantity of treatment received during inpatient rehabilitation.