Participant, injury, treatment and outcome variables
| Variable | No. (%) of participants* | p value† | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aboriginal n = 21 | Non-Aboriginal n = 41 | ||
| Age, yr, mean | 36.0 | 49.8 | 0.010 |
| Sex, male | 15 (71) | 32 (78) | 0.56 |
| Mechanism of injury | 0.003 | ||
| Transport | 8 (38) | 16 (39) | |
| Fall | 2 (10) | 15 (37) | |
| Sports | 4 (19) | 9 (22) | |
| Assault | 6 (29) | 0 | |
| Neurologic condition at admission | 0.51 | ||
| High complete tetraplegia | 2 (10) | 3 (7) | |
| Low complete tetraplegia | 2 (10) | 0 | |
| Incomplete tetraplegia | 8 (38) | 15 (37) | |
| Complete paraplegia | 2 (10) | 6 (15) | |
| Incomplete paraplegia | 0 | 3 (7) | |
| Cauda equina or conus medullaris syndrome | 1 (5) | 4 (10) | |
| Unknown | 6 (29) | 10 (24) | |
| Surgical management | 0.31 | ||
| Yes | 15 (71) | 35 (85) | |
| No | 6 (29) | 6 (15) | |
| Time from injury to admission, h, median‡ | 8.0 | 7.0 | 0.38 |
| Time from injury to surgery, h, median§ | 26.0 | 25.0 | 0.37 |
| Time from admission to surgery, h, median¶ | 20.0 | 15.0 | 0.20 |
| Discharge destination (from Royal University Hospital) | < 0.001 | ||
| Private residence | 0 | 15 (37) | |
| Inpatient rehabilitation | 15 (71) | 20 (49) | |
| Other inpatient facility | 6 (29) | 4 (10) | |
| Morgue | 0 | 2 (5) | |
| Time in rehabilitation, d, median | 93.0 | 56.5 | 0.35 |
| Time to community discharge, d, median | 104.0 | 34.0 | 0.016 |
| Neurologic condition at discharge | 0.21 | ||
| High complete tetraplegia | 2 (10) | 1 (2) | |
| Low complete tetraplegia | 1 (5) | 0 | |
| Incomplete tetraplegia | 5 (24) | 7 (17) | |
| Complete paraplegia | 0 | 4 (10) | |
| Incomplete paraplegia | 5 (24) | 8 (20) | |
| Cauda equina or conus medullaris syndrome | 1 (5) | 1 (2) | |
| Unknown | 7 (33) | 20 (49) | |
| FIM score at discharge, mean (no. of participants) | 100.1 (17) | 98.3 (25) | 0.91 |
| FIM score at 1-yr follow-up, mean (no. of participants) | 96.3 (7) | 112.3 (11) | 0.24 |
| FIM score change, mean (no. of participants) | 6.9 (7) | 7.3 (10) | 0.77 |
FIM = Functional Independence Measure.
↵* Unless indicated otherwise.
↵† Calculated using Fisher exact tests (age, surgical management, mechanism of injury, neurologic condition at admission, neurologic condition at discharge, discharge destination from Royal University Hospital), pooled Student t tests (time from injury to admission, time from injury to surgery, time from admission to surgery, time in rehabilitation, time to community discharge), Pearson χ2 tests (sex) or Wilcoxon rank-sum tests (FIM at discharge, FIM at 1-year follow-up, FIM score change).
↵‡ Outliers removed (values > 129 h, n = 5).
↵§ Outliers removed (values > 219 h, n = 5).
↵¶ Outliers removed (values > 160 h, n = 3).