Correlates of Loneliness in Persons with Spinal Cord Injury.
To determine self-reported psychosocial factors which may be associated with loneliness in persons with Spinal Cord Injury DESIGN AND SETTING: Convergent Parallel virtual structured interviews and quantitative questionnaires PARTICIPANTS: People with traumatic Spinal Cord Injury (tSCI) greater than 1 year prior (questionnaire data from n=20) MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Three-Item Loneliness Scale, Craig Hospital Inventory of Environmental Factors (CHIEF), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Short Form 12 SF-12) RESULTS: Higher levels of loneliness correlated with increased environmental barriers (CHIEF r=0.7, p=0.001) and more depressive symptoms (PHQ-9 r=0.67, p=0.001), while environmental barriers also contributed to worse mental health outcomes (SF-12, MCS r=-0.7, p=0.004).
Loneliness in people with tSCI is likely related to both internal and external factors.
Loneliness in people with tSCI is likely related to both internal and external factors.