Effect of wives group training on activities of daily living and quality of life in male patients with spinal cord injury

Background and Objective: Spinal cord injury as a debilitating disorder has multiple physical and psychological consequences and can affect on the ability to perform daily activities and all indexes of quality of life. The aim of present study was to determine the effect of wives group training on activities of daily living and quality of life in male patients with spinal cord injury.

 Materials and Method: In this quasi-experimental study, 60 patients with spinal cord injury and their wives were purposively selected and then were randomly allocated into two intervention and control groups. Data collection tools including quality of life questionnaire (SF-36) and Barthel index of activities of daily living. Wives of male patients in intervention group participated in 6 group sessions of educational program. Data analysis was done through SPSS 21 and using paired T-test and multivariate analysis of covariance.

 Results: Results showed that the wives training caused improvement in quality of life of patients with spinal cord injury in physical aspect (38.085.14, p=0.001) and psychological aspect (60.338.38, p=0.001). It also improved the ability of patients in daily activities (44.1613.92, p= 0.01).

 Conclusion: According to chronic nature of spinal cord injury, participation of patients’ wives in educational programs can cause improvement in their quality of life and daily activities. Therefore it is recommended to participate them in care plan through training.