Living With Spinal Cord Injury.

April 20, 2022 updated by: St. Olavs Hospital

Register Research Combined With Health Surveys and Patient Data, to Assess Work Participation and Quality of Life Among Persons With Spinal Cord Injury and Their Caregivers

A Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) often drastically disrupts the lives of affected patients and their relatives and caregivers. This observational study will provide new knowledge on how patients and their family caregivers cope in the first years after injury in terms of work inclusion, participation, care giver burden and quality of life. This project will utilize Norwegian spinal cord injury quality register data and link clinical individual data from the quality register to national administrative data on employment and social insurance benefits.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

All individuals in the Norwegian Spinal Cord Injury Registry (NorSCIR) in the period 2011-2017, meaning that they have already given their consent, will be asked to participate. They will be sent a letter with information about the study including a questionnaire.

In the letter they will also be asked, if they agree, to forward an invitation letter to their closest caregiver addressed to "the main family caregiver".

Main family caregiver will be defined as persons who are providing unpaid assistance and support to the person with a SCI. The letter for the caregiver with information about the study, includes a questionnaire. All patients in the NorSCIR and their main caregivers (after consent) will be linked to national administrative register to provide data on social insurance benefits, education and work.

Control groups from the general population will be selected and identified in the national registries (for both the patient cohort and caregiver cohort). These control groups will be used to compare the level of work/benefit over time for patients and caregivers with that of the general population. Also, within-person approaches will be used to assess the impact of the injury, comparing each participant's status in the period after injury with their own status at a time period before injury.

20.04.2022 A relatively low proportion of family caregivers responded to the questionnaire (N = 73). Only 61 gave their consent to link their data to data from Statistics Norway and the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration. We had, therefore, to reconsider this part of the project. We have now concluded that the caregiver population is too small to link their information to the national administrative registers and to make a comparison with a control group from the general population. A control group for caregivers was therefore not needed anymore.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

2654

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

      • Trondheim, Norway
        • St Olavs hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

16 years and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Cohort 1:

All individuals in NorSCIR in the period 2011-2017, meaning that they have already given their consent, will be asked to participate.

Cohort 2:

Main family caregiver will be defined as persons who are providing unpaid assistance and support to the person with a spinal cord injury.

Cohort 3 :

A control group from the general population will be selected and identified in the national registries ( the patient cohort).

Description

Cohort 1:

Inclusion criteria:

  • registered in the Norwegian spinal cord injury quality registry
  • giving informed consent, i.e. accept that the information in the registry (included linked information in national registers)

Exclusion criteria:

  • younger than 16 years

Cohort 2:

Inclusion criteria:

  • providing unpaid assistance and support to the person with a spinal cord injury
  • chosen by the patient.

Exclusion criteria:

  • younger than 16 years

Cohort 3 :

Inclusion:

  • Control groups from the general population, for patients
  • identified in the national registries

Exclusion criteria:

  • younger than 16 years

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Spinal cord injury
Persons with a spinal cord injury. No intervention
observational study
Caregivers spinal cord injury
Caregivers for persons with a spinal cord injury. No intervention
observational study
Controls for patients
Control group for patient cohort. No intervention
observational study

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Work participation of persons with a spinal cord injury
Time Frame: 2 years
Before and after injury
2 years
Work participation of family caregivers
Time Frame: 2 years
Before and after their role as a caregiver
2 years
Mental Health of patients by MHI-5
Time Frame: 2 years
The mental Health is measured with the Mental Health Index (MHI-5)
2 years
Quality of life of patients by WHOQoL-5
Time Frame: 2 years
QoL is measured with the 5-item World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment (WHOQoL-5)
2 years
Quality of life of patients by ISCI QoL Data set
Time Frame: 2 years
QoL is measured with the International SCI quality of life Basic Data Set (ISCI QoL Data Set)
2 years
Mental health of family caregivers by MHI-5
Time Frame: 2 years
Mental health is measured with the Mental Health Index (MHI-5).
2 years
Quality of life of family caregivers by WHOQoL-5
Time Frame: 2 years
QoL is measured with the 5-item World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment (WHOQoL-5)
2 years
Quality of life of family caregivers by ISCI QoL Data Set
Time Frame: 2 years
QoL is measured with the International SCI quality of life Basic Data Set (ISCI QoL Data Set)
2 years
Caregiver burden by Caregiver strain index
Time Frame: 2 years
Caregiver burden for family caregivers is measured with the Caregiver strain index
2 years
Caregiver burden by Self rated burden scale
Time Frame: 2 years
Caregiver burden for family caregivers is measured with the Self rated burden scale.
2 years
Participation by PAM-13 for patients
Time Frame: 2 years
Participation is measured with the following instruments: Patient Activation Measure (PAM-13).
2 years
Participation by PAM-13 for family caregivers
Time Frame: 2 years
Participation is measured with the following instruments: Patient Activation Measure (PAM-13)
2 years
Participation by Utrecht scale for Evaluation of rehabilitation participation
Time Frame: 2 years
Participation for patients is measured with the Utrecht Scale for Evaluation of Rehabilitation Participation (USER-P).
2 years
Participation by Utrecht scale for Evaluation of rehabilitation participation (adjusted)
Time Frame: 2 years
Participation for family caregivers is measured with the adjusted Utrecht Scale for Evaluation of Rehabilitation Participation (USER-P).
2 years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Collaborators

Investigators

  • Study Director: Johan Skomsvoll, md phd, St. Olavs hospital
  • Principal Investigator: Annette Halvorsen, md, St. Olavs hospital

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

June 13, 2019

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 30, 2021

Study Completion (Actual)

July 30, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 15, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 15, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

October 17, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 27, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 20, 2022

Last Verified

April 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2018/294

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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