Disability Identity According to the Severity of Disabilities in Persons with Spinal Cord Injury

Lee, Bum Suk; Lee, Ick Seop; Rhee, Min Kyu; Shin, Eun Kyoung; Lim, Mun Hee

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
To investigate the disability identity and life satisfaction according to the severity of disability in the spinal cord injured persons resident in the community. METHOD: The subjects of this national wide study were 397 spinal cord injured persons resident in the community. We investigated their disability identity, life satisfaction, depression, social integration and social support. The questionnaire included the newly developed disability identity scale to evaluate the disability identity, that consisted of five sub-scales (personal worth, self-acceptance with the disabled, individual civil right, common cause and external barriers) and 23 questions. The subjects were divided into four groups according to severity of disability: motor complete tetraplegia, motor incomplete tetraplegia, motor complete paraplegia and motor incomplete paraplegia.
RESULTS
The scores of life satisfaction, depression and social support were not different according the four groups. However the disability identity scale of the motor incomplete paraplegia was lower than motor complete tetraplegia or motor complete paraplegia (p<0.05). The sub-scale score of the personal worth and self-acceptance were lower in less severely disabled persons. As the disability identity scale was higher, social integration (r=0.478, p=0.000), and social support (r=0.465, p=0.000) were moderate and the depression was negative (r=-0.252, p=0.000).
Conclusion
Less severely disabled persons showed lower disability identity. Disability identity scale was significantly correlated with higher social integration, higher social support and lower depression score. The newly developed disability identity scale will be a useful tool for the evaluation of the psychological status and planning the rehabilitation strategy for spinal cord injured persons.