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Published on: June 16, 2016
The Impact of Multiple Chronic Conditions on Survival in Persons With Spinal Cord Injury
Ya-Ping Huang1, Huai-Jing Guo2, Jen-Chi Cheng3
1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Taiwan University Hospital, Yun-Lin Branch, Yun-Lin County, Taiwan.
Objective:
To investigate the impact of multiple chronic conditions (MCCs) on long-term survival in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI), based on a nationally representative sample.
Design:
Retrospective cohort study.
Setting:
Taiwan's Longitudinal Health Insurance Database.
Participants:
This study enrolled 2854 participants who (1) had at least 2 documented SCI diagnoses in their medical records from 2002-2006, with the first diagnosis during that period serving as the index date, and (2) were aged ≥20 years at the index date. Among these, 731 were categorized as having MCC and 2123 as non-MCC. The inclusion criterion for the MCC group was 2 or more chronic conditions at the index date.
Interventions:
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measures:
Mortality events.
Results:
In the MCC group, the mortality rate was 57.6 per 1000 person-years (95% confidence interval [CI], 50.7-65.2), whereas the non-MCC group had a mortality rate of 22.0 per 1000 person-years (95% CI, 19.7-24.5). The MCC group had a higher mortality risk, which was significant, with an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.40 (95% CI, 1.18-1.66; p=.0001).
Conclusions:
This population-based longitudinal follow-up study indicates that patients with SCI and MCCs had poorer survival than those without MCCs.
