Objectives: This study examines quality of life among patients with spinal cord injury requiring bladder management techniques, according to the validated King s Health Questionnaire (KHQ).
Material and methods: Prospective and observational study of 91 spinal cord-injured patients (21 women 23% and 70 men 77%). Mean age was 40 years (SD 13.4) and average time since spinal injury was 11.4 (SD 10.4) years. Patients completed the KHQ quality of life instrument and 10 additional questions related to urinary disturbance developed for the study, and filled in a form to subjectively rank their main concerns related to spinal injury. Patients were divided according to the bladder management techniques they regularly used: intermittent catheterization, condom catheter or indwelling catheter, and differences between the mean groups were assessed with de SPSS 13.0 statistic package.
Results: The overall KHQ score for the sample was 39.9 (SD 54.4) with higher scores (poorer QoL) in patients using an indwelling catheter. A thorough analysis of the test showed no significant differences between the groups other than in the physical role limitation item (p<or=0.025). Patients using a condom catheter reported lower physical limitation scores (better QoL) than patients using an indwelling catheter or intermittent catheterization. Sexuality was the main concern of most patients, followed by bowel dysfunction, urinary incontinence and ambulation or gait problems.
Conclusion: Patients treated with condom catheters reported the best quality of life according to KHQ scores, although there were no significant differences versus the other urinary management techniques. The patients' main concern was related to sexuality.