Predictive factors of destination at discharge after spinal cord injury

One of the main goals of the rehabilitation of patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) is the reintegration of the individual to their family, social, and work setting. The objective of this study was to identify the factors that determine the discharge destination after a traumatic spinal cord injury.

We conducted a retrospective descriptive study of 305 patients with SCI who completed the rehabilitation treatment at the spinal injury unit of Hospital Insular de Gran Canaria between 2001 and 2018.

During the study period, we observed an increase in the number of patients referred to long-term care centres, from 9.14% between 2001 and 2010 to 18.4% between 2011 and 2018 (P < .01). Of 20 variables that presented a significant association with destination at discharge in the univariate study, 7 presented a significant association in the multivariate study: age (OR: 1.05; 95% CI, 1.02-1.08), living with a partner (OR: 0.26; 95% CI, 0.09-0.76), residing on another island (OR: 3.57; 95% CI, 1.32-9.63), smoking (OR: 3.44; 95% CI, 1.26-9.44), diabetes (OR: 6.51; 95% CI, 1.46-29.02), history of psychiatric disorders (OR: 3.79; 95% CI, 1.31-10.93), and scores on the Spinal Cord Independence Measure-III (SCIM-III) (OR: 0.48; 95% CI, 0.33-0.69).

Our findings identified advanced age, living on the island of Tenerife, not being married, smoking, type 2 diabetes mellitus, history of psychiatric disorders, and low SCIM-III scores as predictive factors of referral to a long-term care centre in patients with traumatic SCI in the Canary Islands.