September 2010 Poll:

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August 2010 Poll:

Presented by Suzanne Groah, MD, MSPH, Project Director, and Manon Schladen, MSE, EdS, Co-Director of Training, Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Secondary Conditions in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI).

About the Training

This RRTC works to help people with spinal cord injury (SCI) maintain their health after injury and focuses specifically on the prevention of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and pressure ulcers. Over the next 5 years, the RRTC, based at National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH), will work in collaboration with ILRU and others to conduct research activities that will produce new knowledge for consumers and their health care providers. The RRTC will then work to help people use the knowledge gained from research to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease and pressure ulcers in SCI, improving quality of life, and enhancing well-being.

This 2-part webinar series introduced the research activities of the RRTC and highlights how they affect the health and well-being of individuals with SCI. Part I highlighted research activities focusing on the prevention of obesity and cardiovascular disease, and can be viewed on http://www.ilru.org/html/training/webcasts/archive/2010/07-14-SCI-RRTC.html.

Part II introduced research activities focusing on the maintenance of skin health and the prevention of pressure ulcers.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this webinar, participants will experience:

• Understand current recommendations for skin protection
• Increased understanding of skin health maintenance

Evaluation

Complete an Evaluation – Please help us present topics you want more information about and make future discussions better by giving us your feedback. Use the following link to go to our evaluation https://vovici.com/wsb.dll/s/12291g45eda

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Presented by the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Secondary Conditions in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) in Washington, DC, and its partner, ILRU, Independent Living Research Utilization, a project of TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston, TX.

Presented by Suzanne Groah, MD, MSPH, Project Director, and Manon Maitland Schladen (Lauderdale), MSE, Co-Director of Training, Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Secondary Conditions in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI).

About the Webinar

This RRTC works to help people maintain their health after SCI and focuses specifically on the prevention of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and pressure ulcers. Over the next 5 years, National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH,) along with Independent Living Research Utilization (ILRU) and other collaborators, will conduct research activities that will produce new knowledge for consumers and their health care providers. The RRTC will then work to help people use the knowledge gained from research to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease and pressure ulcers in SCI, improving quality of life, and enhancing well-being.

This 2-part webinar series introduced the research activities of the RRTC and highlight how they will affect the health and well-being of individuals with SCI. Part I introduced research activities focusing on the prevention of obesity and cardiovascular disease. Part II introduced research activities focusing on the maintenance of skin health and the prevention of pressure ulcers, and can be viewed on http://www.ilru.org/html/training/webcasts/archive/2010/07-28-SCI-RRTC.html

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this webinar, participants will have knowledge and resources which will enable them to:

• Increased understanding of the special needs individuals with SCI are facing to protect the health of their heart
• Increased awareness of heart disease prevention
• Have an understanding of personally controlled health records

July 2010 Poll:

Do you know that feeling after a really long plane flight or car ride, after sitting for hours with no relief and little room to move?  You ache all over, your muscles tighten, and the parts of your body in contact with your seat feel uncomfortable and sore. Though we usually just see these situations as a minor nuisance, they also provide us a glimpse into the life of those confined to wheelchairs or hospital beds.  Particularly for those with spinal cord injuries (SCI), this discomfort is an everyday affair.

Tom Burnett, a member of the RRTC team, writes about the risks and costs associated with pressure ulcers, and how one of the RRTC research projects (known as Project R3) will bring some relief. Visit our website to read the rest of Tom’s essay.

Click here to view “What a pain! Relief for pressure ulcers underway” article.

June 2010 Poll:

A home-based Functional Electrical Stimulation exercise program shows potential to lower cholesterol and decrease body fat

Research participants (complete injury quadriplegics) completed a 12-month program, exercising 6 hours per week, using a functional electrical stimulation (FES) leg-cycle to stimulate muscles below their level of injury. After being in a program for 1 year, participants showed a decrease in total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol (“bad cholesterol”), along with an increase in HDL cholesterol (“good cholesterol”), although these changes were not statistically significant. Participants also had a significant increase in triglycerides and a non-significant decrease in body fat. With the exception of the increase in triglycerides (which was unexpected), participation in this home-based FES program improved lipid profiles and body composition. Although more research is needed, these findings support the notion that FES can be used to enhance health for people with SCI. For more information on this study, please contact Emily Ward at emily@sci-health.org.

“How to” videos can help people with SCI become more independent

After an injury, people with SCI must learn how to complete various activities of daily living while using a wheelchair. The research team at the National Rehabilitation Hospital worked with staff physical and occupational therapists to develop 9 “how to” videos which provide a visual demonstration of techniques that can be used by people with SCI to master their activities of daily living. These videos can be used by clinicians in rehabilitation facilities or at home by individual consumers. The video collection includes: how to cook from a wheelchair, how to do pressure reliefs, how to take off boots, how to transfer from a wheelchair to a bed, how to transfer from a wheelchair to the floor, and how to use an escalator. Videos are available on the RRTC on Spinal Cord Injury YouTube Channel, http://www.youtube.com/healthytomorrow. We hope to add to this collection in the future. These findings are being presented on a poster, which can be accessed here. For more information about this study, please contact Inger Ljungberg at inger@sci-health.org.

Having a health care navigator during inpatient rehabilitation enhances knowledge about pressure ulcer prevention

Participants (newly injured rehab inpatients) were randomly assigned an SCI navigator, which is an individual who assists, educates and empowers patients to achieve better health through self-management skills. Other participants were assigned the standard level of care and education. Those who were assigned an SCI navigator showed a significantly greater improvement in pressure ulcer prevention knowledge, when compared to participants who received the standard care and education. This findings suggests that having a trained navigator to interact with during inpatient rehabilitation could be quite beneficial to patients. These findings are being presented on a poster, which can be accessed here. For more information on this study, please contact Inger Ljungberg at inger@sci-health.org.

Compared to the newly injured, individuals with chronic SCI have higher self-efficacy, which is associated with being able to maintain an exercise routine

Exercise self-efficacy is the belief in oneself to have the capabilities to be exercise active. Persons with SCI are at risk for leading a sedentary lifestyle, which may increase the risk for secondary conditions. Researchers explored the differences in exercise self-efficacy and frequency of physical activity between individuals with a newly acquired SCI (less than 2 years after injury) and those with chronic SCI (more than 10 years after injury). On average, the chronic group had higher exercise self-efficacy, which, in turn, was significantly associated with being able to maintain a physically active lifestyle. This association was not found among the newly injured. These findings suggest that people with SCI may develop self-management skills and exercise self-efficacy over time despite their physical limitations, and raises the importance of continuous self-management education following an injury. These findings are being presented on a poster, which can be accessed here. For more information on this study, please contact Alex Libin at alex@sci-health.org.

Using multimedia enhances disability awareness among preschool children

In an effort to increase disability awareness among young children, researchers worked together with preschool teachers and individuals with spinal cord injury to develop a children’s story focusing on the life experiences of people with a spinal cord injury. The story was created in 2 formats: a multimedia (video) storybook and a traditional print storybook. Both formats were used with preschool children and compared to determine which would be more engaging with the children and usable among teachers. Although the multimedia storybook was more difficult for teachers to use, this format resulted in increased interaction among the children during disability-focused discussions and may enhance learning. These findings are being presented on a poster, which can be accessed here. For more information about this study, please contact Manon Lauderdale at manon@sci-health.org.

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