Factors affecting length of hospital stay for people with Spinal cord injuries at kanombe military hospital, rwanda
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Date
2009
Authors
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Western Cape
Abstract
Spinal cord injury is a devastating condition, and its consequences impact on many facets of an
individual's life. Activities of daily living such as personal care and housework might be difficult
to perform post injury. The majority of spinal cord injury patients receive hospital-based
rehabilitation to address these consequences. The normal length of hospital stay among spinal
cord injury patients ranges from three to twelve months, and an increased length of stay are
caused by development of secondary complications such as pressure sores, urinary tract infection
and respiratory infection. The pu{pose of this study was to determine factors affecting length of
hospital stay for individuals with spinal cord injuries at Kanombe Military Hospital in Rwanda.
To achieve this, a retrospective sfudy, utilising a quantitative approach was used. The records of
individuals with spinal cord injuries discharged from the hospital between l't Januaryl996 and
3l't December 2007 were reviewed to collect data. A data gathering instrument was developed
by the researcher and there after used to capture the relevant information from the patients'
folders. Information collected included demographic data, information relating to the injury,
occulrence of medical complications and length of hospital stay. One hundred and twenty four
medical folders of patients discharged from I't January I 996 to 3 l't December 2OO7 at Kanombe
Military Hospital were reviewed for data extraction. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences
(SPSS) version 16.0 for windows was used to analyse the data. Both descriptive and inferential
statistics were determined in SPSS. Associations were made between demographic factors and
occlurence of secondary medical complications with length of hospital stay. These were
computed by means of chi-square tests. One level of significance, alpha set at 502 was used
throughout. The linear regression analysis was used to determine factors affecting the length of
stay.
Description
Doctor Educationis
Keywords
spinal cord, injuries, Kanombe Military Hospital, Rwanda, factors affecting, hospital stay