Monitoring outcome measures for cardiometabolic disease during rehabilitation and follow-up in people with spinal cord injury

Study design: Controlled pragmatic intervention with follow-up. Objectives: To describe cardiometabolic risk outcomes after a pragmatic intervention implemented into standard spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation. Setting: Inpatient SCI rehabilitation in East-Denmark. Participants: Inpatients, >18 years, having sustained a SCI within the last 12 months at admission to rehabilitation, regardless of etiology, neurological level or completeness of the lesion or mobility status. Methods: Patient education on health promotion was guided by evidence and included feedback on peak oxygen uptake (VO₂peak) (primary outcome measure), body mass index (BMI), Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry and metabolic profile (secondary outcome measures). Paired t-tests, non-parametric tests and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used for analyzes. VO₂peak and BMI were compared to historical data. Results: VO₂peak increased significantly from admission to discharge but did not exceed historical data despite a minimal clinical important difference. BMI decreased significantly during rehabilitation (p < 0.001) followed by a significant increase after discharge (p = 0.006). There was a trend that people with American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS) D SCI increased lean mass to nearly normal values. Criteria for pre-diabetes or diabetes were present in 28.5% and dyslipidemia in 45% of the participants 44.2 days after time of injury. Conclusions: Despite improvements during rehabilitation, outcome measures were worse than recommended, and most outcome measures worsened at follow up, even in people with an AIS D SCI. Meaningful support regarding exercise and diet when tackling altered life circumstances is needed after discharge.