Barriers and facilitators to changing bowel care practices after spinal cord injury: a Theoretical Domains Framework...

Improvement to autonomic processes such as bladder, bowel and sexual function are prioritised by individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). Bowel care is associated with high levels of dissatisfaction and decreased quality of life. Despite dissatisfaction, 71% of individuals have not changed their bowel care routine for at least 5 years, highlighting a disconnect between dissatisfaction with bowel care and changing routines to optimise bowel care.

Using an integrated knowledge translation approach, we aimed to explore the barriers and facilitators to making changes to bowel care in individuals with SCI.

Our approach was guided by the Behaviour Change Wheel and used the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals with SCI (n = 13, mean age 48.6 ± 13.1 years) and transcribed verbatim (duration 31.9 ± 7.1 min). Barriers and facilitators were extracted, deductively coded using TDF domains and inductively analysed for themes within domains.

Changing bowel care after SCI was heavily influenced by four TDF domains: environmental context and resources (workplace flexibility, opportunity or circumstance, and access to resources); beliefs about consequences; social influences (perceived support and peer mentorship); and knowledge (knowledge of physiological processes and bowel care options). All intervention functions and policy categories were considered viable intervention options, with human (61%) and digital (33%) platforms preferred.

Modifying bowel care is a multi-factorial behaviour. These findings will support the systematic development and implementation of future interventions to both enable individuals with SCI to change their bowel care and to facilitate the optimisation of bowel care approaches.