Last modified: 2022-09-04
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To determine prevalence of psychological symptoms amongst spinal cord injury survivors, in Kenya. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study SETTING: Community METHODS: 186 rehabilitated spinal cord injury survivors participated in the study. Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) version 21 was used to measure the dimensions of depression, anxiety, and stress. RESULTS: Prevalence rate of 69.35 %( n=129) of psychological symptom was recorded. Majority of the rehabilitated SCI survivors were male, young and low educated. Correlation analysis indicated that males 46.77 %( n=87; p-value=0.117) had a higher prevalence of Depression, Anxiety and Stress (DAS) after SCI rehabilitation compared to women 22.58 %( n=42; p-value=0.148). Regression analysis revealed that there was statistically significance relationship between socio demographic characteristics and DAS, while significant influence of socio-demographic characteristics on psychological symptom status for person with SCI with 94.7% variation (R2=.947). CONCLUSION: The current study shows that psychological symptoms are common amongst SCI survivors and that poor young adult males with low education are the most at risk of SCI. This study has highlighted the need for psychological care during and after rehabilitation.