Life satisfaction and spinal cord injury: the patient perspective

Spinal cord injury is a high-cost disability requiring numerous personal life-style changes. As a result of advanced medical and nursing care, life expectancy of the spinal cord-injured (SCI) individual has greatly increased. Economic impact and changes in life expectancy have led to assumptions about life satisfaction in SCI individuals. Those assumptions are: (1) spinal cord-injured individuals have less life satisfaction than the general population, and (2) since these individuals cannot lead "normal" lives, they may be better off not living. This study attempted to disprove those assumptions by determining whether correlation existed between life satisfaction and physical functioning in SCI individuals. Telephone interviews were conducted with 31 individuals who had suffered spinal cord injury. Data were collected through the use of the Life Satisfaction in the Elderly Scale (LSES) and the Barthel Index. A correlation was found to exist between LSES scores and Barthel scores, but Barthel scores and the LSES subscale scores for goals, mood and finance had low correlations. The data suggest nurses may enhance life satisfaction in the SCI individual by focusing on adaptation in the three subscales of goals, mood and finance.