American Academy of Spinal Cord Injury Professionals ASCIP 2018 Educational Conference & Expo Stronger Together: Passion, Purpose and Possibilities in SCI/D

Abstract

Objective: To describe the impact of an education program to prevent falls in full-time manual wheelchair users (MWU) living with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). Design: Pre/post. At baseline, participants reported the frequency of falls over the past six months and completed the Community Participation Indicators(CPI) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life (short version -WHO-QOL BREF) assessment. Transfer quality to and from a mat table was assessed using the Transfer Assessment Instrument (TAI) and boundaries of seated stability were evaluated using standardized procedures. After baseline testing, a structured education program designed to decrease fall frequency was implemented. After the intervention, participants were asked to prospectively track fall frequency for 12 weeks. After 12 weeks, the assessment, as described above, was repeated. Participant/methods: 18 fulltime MWUs with SCI participated in the study. Participants were an average of 35.78 ± 13.89 y.o. and lived with their SCI for an average of 17 ± 15 years. The majority of participants were female (n = 11, 61.1%). Level of injury ranged from C4-L3, AIS A-C. To examine the differences in outcomes pre and post exposure to the education program, seated stability was evaluated using a paired t-test. Nonparametric Wilcoxon tests were used to evaluate all other variables due to the ordinal or non-normally distributed nature of the data. Results: After exposure to the intervention, fall frequency significantly decreased, (Pre: 1.37 ± 1.62 falls per month, Post: 0.67 ± 0.82, p = 0.047). A trend in the data indicated improvements in seated stability (Pre: