TY - JOUR PY - 2016// TI - Subgroups in epidemiological studies on spinal cord injury: evaluation of international recommendations in the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study JO - Journal of rehabilitation medicine A1 - Hinrichs, Timo A1 - Prodinger, Birgit A1 - Brinkhof, Martin W. G. A1 - Gemperli, Armin SP - 141 EP - 148 VL - 48 IS - 2 N2 - OBJECTIVE: To test subgroups of a community-based sample of individuals with spinal cord injury, categorized by the application of current recommendations by the International Spinal Cord Society.

DESIGN: Community survey. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals with traumatic and non-traumatic spinal cord injury residing in Switzerland.

METHODS: Recommended subgroups of age, gender, years since injury, severity of injury and aetiology were tested against the following criteria: (i) distribution of participants across categories; (ii) within- and between-group variability with regard to selected outcomes of functioning and quality of life.

RESULTS: Data-sets for 1,549 participants (28.5% women; mean age 52 ± 15 years) were available for analyses. There was a number of participants in every subgroup, yet numbers were relatively small in the group with the shortest time since injury (< 1 year; n = 23) and in the oldest age group (≥ 76; n = 94). A high variability in some outcomes was detected between categories. All variables were predictive for most of the endpoints investigated.

CONCLUSION: Recommended categorization could well fit the present sample. A minor concern was the low numbers of participants in some subgroups.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1650-1977 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.2340/16501977-2029 ID - ref1 ER -