Daily Living Context and Pressure Sores in Consumers with Spinal Cord Injuries.

Dr. Florence Clark, Principal Investigator; Dr. Jeanne Jackson, Co-Principal Investigator (2000-2003)

Abstract:

The problem of recurrent, medically serious pressure sores represents a key challenge to the ability of individuals with spinal cord injury to experience a full and satisfying life. Although prior research has documented that the development of pressure sores is in general linked to psychosocial and environmental variables, there is a need to obtain new, consumer-centered information about how pressure sores can be minimized through personally tailored adaptive strategies that are responsive to the opportunities and difficulties embedded in the unique sets of everyday circumstances that characterize individual lives.

Based on a collaboration between researchers from the University of Southern California Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy and the Spinal Cord Injury Program at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, this three-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Education utilizes in-depth qualitative research techniques to carefully examine the beliefs and practices surrounding the activities, habits, and daily routines of 18 ethnically diverse consumers with spinal cord injury. Our intent is to carefully document how personality, lifestyle patterns and choices, and environmental context mutually interact within the individually constructed lives of consumers to influence the development of pressure sores. A variety of data collection procedures, including participant observation as well as interviews with consumers, their caregivers, and other associated persons, will be jointly utilized to generate results that are comprehensive and trustworthy. These results will be used to develop a series of applied products, including: (1) a consumer-oriented self-help manual; (2) a set of guidelines for rehabilitation practice; and (3) a lifestyle-oriented occupational therapy treatment model. Consumer representatives will contribute to all aspects of the project to ensure that it is relevant and maximally useful to the target population.