RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: Studying the quality of life of people with a spinal cord injury is of great importance as it allows the monitoring of both functioning and adaptation to disability. The aim of this study was to determine the difference between persons with a spinal cord injury involved in sports activities and those not involved in sports activities in relation to their quality of life and the presence of secondary health conditions (pressure ulcers, urinary infections, muscle spasms, osteoporosis, pain, kidney problems-infections, calculosis and poor circulation). METHODS: The study included a total of 44 participants with spinal cord injury-paraplegia of both genders; 26 of them were athletes and 18 were not athletes. The athletes were training actively for the last two years, minimally 2-3 times per week. A specially designed questionnaire, medical documentation and the Spinal Cord Injury Quality of Life Questionnaire (SCI QL-23) were used for research purposes. Chi-square test was used to analyze the differences between the groups, while multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to determine the differences between the sets of variables. RESULTS: Among the participants, the athletes perceived higher quality of life than the non-athletes (male gender p<0.001 and female gender p<0.05). Regarding secondary health conditions, the athletes reported the presence of less pain (p=0.034) and a subjective feeling of better circulation (p=0.023). CONCLUSION: The implementation of sports activities significantly improves quality of life in the population of people with spinal cord injury-paraplegia. However, sports activities only partially affect secondary health conditions.
RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: It has been assumed that there is causality of the achieved level of functional independence with the degree of preservation of cognitive function in stroke patients. Demographic characteristics may be important for monitoring the achieved level of functional independence. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship of demographic characteristics and functional independence in regard to the level of cognitive impairment in stroke patients. METHODS: The study included 50 stroke patients after rehabilitation, as well as age- and gender-matched 50 subjects selected randomly, according to the demographic characteristics of the studied sample, who in their medical history had no neurological disorders. For the assessment of functional independence, the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) test was used.The general cognition was estimated by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) test. The statistical analyses included the Mann-Whitney test, for two independent samples, measures of canonical correlation, and χ2 test. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant difference between the groups in relation to risk factors, hypertension and diabetes mellitus type II (p < 0.001); There was a statistically significant difference within the groups in relation to the cognitive impairment in all the examined demographic characteristics (p<0.001); the differences within the groups in relation to the cognitive impairment are present on all subscales of the FIM test (p < 0.05); the differences within the groups in relation to handedness, hemiparesis, show that mild cognitive impairment is more common among left hemiparesis, while a more severe one is more common among right-sided hemiparesis (p < 0.05); More severe cognitive impairment is common among women, the elderly and in persons with lower education (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: By prevention of risk factors, and prevention of possible cognitive impairment, consequences of stroke can be reduced, the recovery can be made more successful, and quality of life can be improved.
