KITE-Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Department of Physical Therapy, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Disabil Rehabil. 2024 Aug;46(17):3937-3945. doi: 10.1080/09638288.2023.2259311. Epub 2023 Sep 21.
To understand the circumstances, causes and consequences of falls experienced by individuals with subacute SCI, and to explore their perspectives on how falls/fall risk impacted their transition to community living.
Sixty adults with subacute SCI participated. A sequential explanatory mixed methods design was adopted. In Phase I, falls were monitored for six months post-inpatient rehabilitation discharge through a survey. In Phase II, a qualitative focus group ( = 5) was held to discuss participants' perspectives on Phase I results and falls/fall risk. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were used to analyze Phase I and II data, respectively.
Falls commonly occurred in the daytime, at home and about half resulted in minor injury. Three themes reflecting participants' perspectives were identified in Phase II. 1) Lack of preparedness to manage fall risk upon returning home from inpatient rehabilitation. 2) Adjusting to increased fall risk following discharge from inpatient rehabilitation. 3) Psychological impact of the transition to living at home with an increased fall risk.
The findings highlight the need for fall prevention initiatives during subacute SCI, when individuals are learning to manage their increased fall risk.
了解亚急性脊髓损伤个体经历跌倒的情况、原因和后果，并探讨他们对跌倒/跌倒风险如何影响其向社区生活过渡的看法。
60 名亚急性脊髓损伤成年人参与了研究。采用顺序解释性混合方法设计。在第一阶段，通过调查对住院康复出院后六个月内的跌倒情况进行监测。在第二阶段，进行了一次定性焦点小组讨论（= 5），讨论参与者对第一阶段结果和跌倒/跌倒风险的看法。分别使用描述性统计和主题分析来分析第一阶段和第二阶段的数据。
跌倒通常发生在白天，在家里，大约一半导致轻微受伤。第二阶段确定了反映参与者观点的三个主题。1）从住院康复出院后回到家中时缺乏管理跌倒风险的准备。2）从住院康复出院后，跌倒风险增加，需要进行调整。3）过渡到家中生活，跌倒风险增加，对心理的影响。
研究结果强调了在亚急性脊髓损伤期间需要预防跌倒，因为此时个体正在学习管理其增加的跌倒风险。
