Original Article: JRCRS. 2024; 12(2): 70-74.
2- Frequency of neck disability among manual wheelchair users having injury of spinal cord: cross-sectional
Amna Farooq1, Nabeela Safdar2, Hafiz Muhammad Asim3, Sanober Shehzadi4, Sumbal Salik5, Somia Faisal6
1Physiotherapist at Gurkhi Trust Teaching Hospital, Lahore
2Assistant Professor at Lahore College of Physical Therapy, LMDC, Lahore
3Dean at Lahore College of Physical Therapy, LMDC, Lahore
4Physiotherapist
5lecturer at Lahore College of Physical Therapy, LMDC, Lahore
6Demonstrator at Lahore College of Physical Therapy, LMDC, Lahore
ABSTRACT:
OBJECTIVE:
To determine the frequency of neck disability among spinal cord injured patients prone to used manual wheelchairs.
METHODOLOGY:
A descriptive cross-sectional was executed after Ethical Approval from the LMDC committee from November 2022 to April 2023. The study was conducted in Ghurki Trust & Teaching Hospital and Lahore General Hospital, Lahore; engaging 65 patients aged 25-50 years with traumatic paraplegic spinal cord injuries, using manual wheelchairs for 3 to 12 months. The study excluded individuals with systemic or degenerative diseases, neck pain resulting from whiplash injury, and those exhibiting medical red flags. Non-probability convenience sampling helps for selection and Neck Disability Index (NDI) used for data collection. SPSS version 26 used for statistical purposes.
RESULTS:
Out of 65 patients, 66.7% (n=44) were males and 31.8% (n=21) were females. The mean age of study subjects was 37.00±9.394 years. The Total Score of the Neck Disability Index showed with mean of 24.78 8.58 years. Hence the percentage of neck disability demonstrated in 65 patients was 3.0% (n=2) with no disability, 9.1% (n=6) mild disability, 30.3% (n=20) moderate disability, 42.4% (n=28) severe disability, 13.6% (n=9) complete disability. Out of 65 patients, 42.4% (n=28) were with severe disability. However; there was no significant association of developing neck disability among spinal cord injury patients with prolonged use of Manual wheelchairs with a p-value <0.05.
CONCLUSION:
The study findings indicate a significant frequency of severe neck disability among users of manual wheelchair with traumatic injury of spinal cord without having any significant association with the duration of wheelchair usage.
KEY WORDS:
Disability, Manual Wheelchair, Neck, Spinal cord injury.