Social Integration of Adult Persons with Spinal Cord Injury

Trgovčević, Sanja and Milićević, Milena (2014) Social Integration of Adult Persons with Spinal Cord Injury. In: Education and Rehabilitation of Adult Persons with Disabilities: thematic collection of international importance. Medicinski fakultet, Foča, pp. 175-190. ISBN 978-99955-733-9-3

Text Trgovčević & Milićević (2014) Social integration.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (1MB)

Abstract

Social integration refers to the process of comprehensive engagement of persons with impairments and disabilities in all aspects of family and social life. It is the key issue and the ultimate goal of rehabilitation of persons with spinal cord injury (hereinafter: SCI), covering all aspects of medical and professional rehabilitation. In most cases, people with SCI are healthy and able to participate actively in social life. However, despite the impact and invaluable importance of functional restoration, there are many factors representing significant barriers to social integration of persons from this population. The aim of this research was focused on the exploration of level of social integration in adult persons with SCI in comparison to those without SCI, as well as among adult persons with paraplegia and tetraplegia. This cross-sectional study included 100 participants of both gender, between the ages of 18 and 65 years. The entire sample was divided into three subgroups: 23 participants with paraplegia, 21 participants with tetraplegia, and 56 participants of typical population. Community Integration Questionnaire – CIQ and socio-demographic questionnaire were used. Differences in social integration levels among participants with SCI and participants without SCI were found in all examined domains (p< 0,05). Comparing results of participants with paraplegia and tetraplegia, statistically significant difference was observed only in home integration domain (χ2 = 17,746; df = 9; p = 0,038). Future research should examine the relation between a wider range of socio-demographic characteristics and various aspects of social integration of persons with SCI.

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