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Predictors of personal care assistance for people with spinal cord injury
David A Weitzenkamp1, Gale G Whiteneck, Daniel P Lammertse
1Craig Hospital, Englewood, CO.
Objective:
To assess the predictors of personal care assistance (PCA) use in people with spinal cord injury (SCI).
Design:
Cross-sectional.
Setting:
Follow-up of individuals crossing their 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, or 25th anniversary of injury who underwent their initial rehabilitation at a Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems center.
Participants:
A total of 2154 participants (2547 records) who met the inclusion criteria for the National Spinal Cord Injury Database and had valid values for the main outcome measures.
Interventions:
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures:
Daily hours of paid, unpaid, and occasional PCA services.
Results:
Differences in an interval version of the motor portion of the FIM trade mark instrument accounted for 26.3% of the variance in total PCA hours, Model Systems differences accounted for 9.3%, and no other predictor accounted for more than 2.1% of the variance.
Conclusion:
Activities of daily living functioning, as measured by the motor portion of the FIM, was the strongest predictor of PCA use among people with SCI.
