Purpose: This study sought to; (i) investigate the proportion of Thai individuals with spinal cord injury (Thai-SCI) who met SCI-specific physical activity (PA) guidelines, (ii) describe PA and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of Thai-SCI across different sociodemographic strata, and, (iii) measure the variance in HRQOL associated with the intensity and volume of leisure-time physical activities (LTPA).
Methods: Two surveys, measuring PA and HRQOL, were used in this study. Descriptive analysis, parametric and non-parametric tests for comparing two or more groups were used to analyse the data. The relationship between PA levels and HRQOL scores was investigated using Spearman's correlation coefficients. All statistical significance level in this study were set to alpha < 0.05.
Results: From the 200 participants, 14.5% met aerobic, 20.5% met strength training and 13.5% met both aerobic and strength training SCI-specific PA guidelines. Sedentary Thai-SCI accounted for 49% of the study sample. Thai-SCI spent 132.0 ± 254.3 (mean ± SD) minutes per week on moderate-to-heavy intensity LTPA. Average Physical and Mental Component Summary (PCS and MCS scores) of Thai-SCI were 42.3 ± 7.6 and 49.3 ± 8.4 (mean ± SD), respectively. Increases in average LTPA of moderate-to-heavy intensities were weakly correlated with increases in PCS scores and its sub-domains (r = 0.1-0.3, n = 200, all p < 0.05).
Conclusion: The average time spent on moderate-to-heavy intensity ADLs and LTPA were below SCI-specific PA guidelines and the WHO global recommendations for PA. The proportion of Thai-SCI who were sedentary was high, suggesting immediate action and implementation of strategies to promote PA for Thai-SCI.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONThe proportion of Thai people with spinal cord injury with a sedentary lifestyle was high.Healthcare providers in Thailand must engage to a greater degree in health-related physical activity promotion to effectively deliver physical activity and exercise knowledge to their clients with spinal cord injury.Likely, structured programs of physical activity and exercise deployed by healthcare professionals with the appropriate knowledge and skills might reverse the current trend to sedentary lifestyle in this population.Interventions to improve participation in physical activity and health-related quality of life should be tailored to the individual needs of Thai individuals with a spinal cord injury and might be better delivered seperately.
Keywords: PARA-SCI; Physical activity; SF-12; Thailand; health-related quality of life; spinal cord injuries.