Demographic and Clinical Correlates of Quality of Life Domains in Spinal Cord Injury

Background/Objectives: In patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), quality of life (QoL) is increasingly recognized as an important indicator of their ability to sustain both the rehabilitation process and post-rehabilitation community reintegration, and it plays a crucial role in prognosis. The primary purpose of this study was to identify the demographic and clinical correlates of different QoL domains as perceived by patients hospitalized after SCI. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study on a single day in the units of the Montecatone Rehabilitation Institute (MRI), the largest Italian center for intensive rehabilitation of individuals with SCI. We administered the World Health Organization Quality of Life-Short Version (WHOQOL-BREF), which consists of 26 items rated on a five-point Likert scale. Study participants included 88 adults with SCI; a total of 74% were male, with a mean age of 53.3 years (SD = 15.05). The lesion was traumatic in 74% of cases and complete in 59%. Physical health showed a weak negative association with age (r = -0.213, p = 0.05), whereas social QoL demonstrated a significant positive association with age (r = 0.215, p = 0.046). Psychological QoL was significantly lower in females compared with males (46.9 vs. 55.1, p < 0.05) and in patients living alone compared with those not living alone (46.1 vs. 54.6, p < 0.05). Conclusions: Clinicians should consider routine assessment of QoL to personalize post-discharge therapeutic plans and to implement targeted interventions aimed at improving outcomes in patients with SCI.