Impact of injury level and self-monitoring on free time boredom of people with spinal cord injury

Leisure repertoire among persons with a spinal cord injury: interests, performance, and well-being

OBJECTIVE

To explore and describe the leisure repertoire of persons with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) and how the repertoire is related to interest, performance, and well-being.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

SETTING

A total of 97 persons with traumatic SCI were recruited from the non-profit national organization, RG Active Rehabilitation in Sweden.

OUTCOME MEASURE

Data were collected through a two-part postal survey. The first comprised of questions investigating socio-demographic variables and injury characteristics; the second part included an interest checklist with 20 areas of leisure activities.

RESULTS

The participants were mostly interested in, performed, and experienced well-being from social and culture activities and TV/DVD/movies. The areas of leisure activities in which they had most likely experienced changes after the SCI were outdoor activities, exercise, and gardening. Sex, age, and to some extent, time since injury were related to interest, performance, well-being, and changed performance.

CONCLUSIONS

The results provided an explanation and limited description of a changed leisure repertoire among persons after a traumatic SCI. The study showed that sex, age, and time since injury were more closely related to the choice of leisure activities to include in the leisure repertoire than the level of injury. This knowledge can be of importance when professionals in the field of rehabilitation are planning and implementing interventions concerning leisure activities for persons with SCI.

Sport, free time and hobbies in people with spinal cord injury

STUDY DESIGN

Prospective, multicenter follow-up (F-U) observational study.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the changes in participation and sports practice of people after spinal cord injury (SCI) and their impact on perceived quality of life (QoL).

METHODS

The questionnaire investigated the health status and management of clinical conditions and attendance of social integration, occupation, autonomy, car driving, sentimental relationships and perceived QoL in a SCI population 4 years after the first rehabilitation hospitalization.

RESULTS

Respondents were 403, 83.4% male; 39% was tetraplegic. At F-U, 42.1% worked and studied, 42.2% still held their jobs or studies, and 69% drove the car. In all, 77.2% had bowel continence and 40.4% urinary continence. The results showed that for the 68.2% of respondents, the attendance of friends, relatives and colleagues during their free time was the same or increased compared with the time before the injury, whereas 31.8% showed a decrease. The amount of time the 52.1% of respondents left home was the same or increased compared with before the trauma, whereas 50.6% of the respondents said that the time they were engaged in hobbies was either the same or increased.

CONCLUSION

SCI people who perceived their QoL as being higher, and whose attendance, autonomy and time was increased in respect to hobbies, were mainly men with an age range between 36 and 40 years, unmarried, paraplegic and with A-B Asia Score. Regarding the amount of time dedicated to practicing sports, the only difference was the most of that respondents, who indicated a decrease, were women.

A concept analysis of self-monitoring

AIM

This paper reports a concept analysis delineating and clarifying the concept of self-monitoring to facilitate development and evaluation of interventions to enhance self-monitoring.

BACKGROUND

The concepts of self-monitoring, self-management, self-care and symptom management are often used in similar or interchangeable ways. Clarification of the concept of self-monitoring is needed for research and theory development.

METHOD

Rodgers and Knafl's evolutionary concept analysis process was used to delineate and clarify the concept. The PubMed and CINAHL databases were searched using keywords 'self-monitoring', 'self-management' and 'self-care' (with and without the hyphen) for the years 1998-2005, to update a previous study (not published). Later, searching was refined and the keyword 'self-monitoring' was paired with 'awareness' and 'self-regulation' was added. Approximately half the papers were from nursing (n = 34) and half from other disciplines (n = 32). The sample from 1998 to 2005 was further stratified by chronic condition. Definition, exemplars, usage, attributes, antecedents/consequences and implications for further study were identified.

FINDINGS

Self-monitoring was composed of two complementary components (attributes): (1) awareness of bodily symptoms, sensations, daily activities, and cognitive processes and (2) measurements, recordings and observations that inform cognition or provide information for independent action or consultation with care providers.

CONCLUSION

Self-monitoring may be an important concept for understanding how people self-manage chronic conditions. This concept analysis may be useful for researchers who wish to measure this dimension and to develop nursing theory in this area.