Proceedings for a Webinar on Aging with Spinal Cord Injury: Opening a Conversation

Between 1940 and 2010, life expectancy doubled for people with spinal cord injury (SCI). In response to this survival trend, literature emerged examining how people grow older with SCI. While some authors posited that people with SCI age prematurely, others focused on the incidence of coexisting conditions over the course of an injury. These latter data are important in that they can help individuals with SCI, their care partners, and clinicians anticipate medical needs, but they fail to capture the subjective experience of aging with SCI. To date, no work has examined the complex health-related challenges that may attend longer standing injuries or whether and how the presentation and management of coexisting conditions change over time. Given this dearth of knowledge around the real-world experiences of aging with SCI, the authors hosted a community-focused, peer-led, Zoom-based conference addressing medical challenges specific to growing older with SCI. Focusing on bone health, chronic pain, blood pressure management, and neurogenic bladder, invited speakers presented cases and a moderator facilitated discussions between attendees. In this report, we summarize the concerns and questions that arose during the conference and propose topics for future investigation.