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Background and objectives: Spinal cord injuries are associated with permanent disability, longterm rehabilitation and psychological readaptation to situational change. The aim of the study was to assess the performance of basic activities, quality of life and stress coping style of patients with spinal cord injuries, and to identify a predictive correlation between the duration of the injury, coping styles or functional assessment and the psychological domain of QOL.
Methods: Thirty-five patients were studied by self-reporting and observational methods using questionnaires, CISS, SCIM-II, WHOQoL-Bref scales and a patient survey.
Results: The predictors of the psychological domain of life quality include an emotion-oriented coping style (negative, ˇ = −.36, p < .05) and functionality with respect to self-care (positive, ˇ = .57, p < .01) with a moderate level of model fitting (R2 = .42). Although the time of living with the disease was not found to be a significant predictor of psychological quality of life, a weak curvilinear relationship was identified between the two (R2 = .25).
Conclusions: The results suggest that the psychological aspects of QOL observed after SCI may be associated with an emotional coping style. Hence, there is a need for deeper analysis of the role played by emotions and perception associated with chronic stress in patients with SCI.
