Study design: Retrospective cohort study.
Objectives: To evaluate the effects of two periods of rehabilitation among people with spinal cord injury (SCI).
Setting: Shanghai Sunshine Rehabilitation Center (SSRC), China.
Methods: A total of 130 people with SCI who received two periods of rehabilitation participated in the study. Outcome measures included basic life skills (15 items) and their applications in family and social life (8 items). Six factors were identified from the 23 items by factor analysis: self-care and transfer skills; basic life skills application in social life; cognition and emotion; basic life skills application in family life; walking and climbing stairs; and wheelchair skills. Standardized scores ranging from 0 to 100 were used to show the rehabilitation outcome in a histogram.
Results: Median scores for self-care and transfer skills, wheelchair skills, cognition and emotion, and their applications in family and social life improved significantly (7-80%, p < 0.01) over the first rehabilitation period, while no improvement was observed in walking and climbing stairs. Five factors showed a significant sustained effect (p < 0.01) upon admission to the second rehabilitation period, except walking and climbing stairs. By enrolling in the second period of rehabilitation, participants acquired significant additional improvement (5-43%, p < 0.01) in rehabilitation outcomes, except in cognition and emotion, walking and climbing stairs.
Conclusions: Two periods of rehabilitation were efficacious at increasing the abilities of basic life skills and their applications in family and social life. The potential benefits of continuous rehabilitation merit further research.