Abstract:
INTRODUCTION: Approximately 80% of people with spinal
cord injury experience clinically significant chronic
pain. Pain (whether musculoskeletal or neuropathic) is
consistently rated as one of the most difficult problems to
manage and negatively affects the individual’s physical,
psychological and social functioning and increases the risk
of pain medication misuse and poor mental health. The
aim of this study is to therefore determine the presence of
pain and its impact on functioning and disability as well as
to develop a framework for self-management of pain for
South African manual wheelchair users with spinal cord
injury.
METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Community-dwelling participants
with spinal cord injury will be invited to participate in
this three-phase study. Phase 1 will use a quantitative,
correlational design to determine factors related to pain
such as pectoralis minor length, scapular dyskinesis,
wheelchair functioning, physical quality of life, community
reintegration and pain medication misuse. Demographic
determinants of pain such as age, gender, type of
occupation, completeness of injury and neurological
level of injury will also be investigated. Participants with
pain identified in phase 1 will be invited to partake in a
qualitative descriptive and contextually designed phase 2
to explore their lived experience of pain through in-depth
interviews. The results of phases 1 and 2 will then be used
with the assistance from experts to develop a framework
for self-management of pain using a modified Delphi
study. Data analysis will include descriptive and inferential
statistics (quantitative data) and thematic content analysis
(qualitative data).
ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Approval for this study is
granted by the Faculty of Health Sciences Research Ethics
Committee of the University of the Pretoria (approval
number 125/2018). This study is registered with the South
African National Health Research Database (reference
GP201806005). This study’s findings will be shared in
academic conferences and published in scientific peer reviewed journals.
