The presence of pain in community-dwelling South African manual wheelchair users with spinal cord injury.
Mokgadi K Mashola, Elzette Korkie, Diphale J Mothabeng
PMID 35281780WHAT IT FOUND
85% of manual wheelchair users with spinal cord injury reported pain.
Neuropathic pain was more common than musculoskeletal pain and was associated with higher severity. Burning pain in the lower limbs below the injury level was the most frequent presentation.
Key findings
0185% of the 122 participants experienced pain at the time of the study.
02Neuropathic pain was more common than musculoskeletal pain, with 62.5% of those with pain reporting neuropathic pain compared to 37.5% reporting musculoskeletal pain.
03Neuropathic pain was significantly more severe than musculoskeletal pain, with mean differences of 2.2 points for the most painful area, 2.5 points for the second most painful area, and 0.88 points for the third.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study only included people with paraplegia, so results cannot be generalised to those with tetraplegia. The cross-sectional design means the study captures a snapshot of pain presence and severity but cannot determine causality or how pain changes over time. The majority of participants had complete injuries, which may affect the generalisability of comparisons between complete and incomplete injury groups. Self-reported pain measures, although researcher-administered, are subject to individual interpretation and recall bias.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was part of a doctoral thesis.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this study proves an intervention reduces pain. It describes the prevalence and characteristics of pain in this population but does not test any treatment.