Objective: To identify changes in health, healthcare utilization, participation, and life satisfaction and depressive symptoms from pre-pandemic to post-pandemic among ambulatory and nonambulatory participants with spinal cord injury (SCI).
Design: Longitudinal study with the first measurement taken within three months prior to pandemic restrictions and two follow-ups at approximately one year intervals.
Setting: Medical University in the Southeastern USA.
Participants: 219 adult participants with SCI, including ambulatory (n= 155) and nonambulatory (n= 64).
Main outcome measures: Self-report assessment of health outcomes from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; health service utilization including physician visits, emergency department visits and hospitalizations; items from the Craig Handicap Assessment Reporting Technique; three life satisfaction scales from the Life Situation Questionnaire, and the brief version of the Patient Health Questionnaire.
Interventions: Not applicable.
Results: After using a Z score correction for nonnormality, none of the time effects or interaction effects of time by ambulatory status were significant. Six comparisons between ambulatory and nonambulatory were statistically significant. Ambulatory participants reported significantly 3 more days in poor physical health (p = .02) and 2 more days feeling worried, tense, or anxious in the last 30 days (p = .03). They visited emergency department on 0.3 fewer occasions (p = .02), while reporting leaving the house 1 more day every week (p = .02), 2 hours more sitting tolerance (p<.01), and 1 higher score of vocational satisfaction (p = .03).
Conclusion: The absence of statistically significant changes from pre- to post-pandemic and the absence of time by ambulatory status interactions suggest stability of outcomes, even in the presence of pandemic challenges.
Keywords: COVID-19; ambulation; healthcare; spinal cord injury.
Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.