Health-related Self-efficacy following Stroke, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Spinal Cord Injury

Research Objectives: To examine baseline self-efficacy for individuals with different neurological diagnoses prior to enrollment in a healthy lifestyle intervention and associations with demographics, injury characteristics, and physiologic variables

Design: Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data prior to enrollment in three adapted healthy lifestyle interventions

Setting: Community dwelling adults in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area

Participants: Participants with history of stroke (CVA), traumatic brain injury (TBI), or spinal cord injury (SCI) were enrolled into three healthy lifestyle intervention studies, resulting in a total of 221 participants across three studies: n=65 (29%) in the CVA group, n=57 (26%) in the TBI group, n=99 (45%) in the SCI group.

Interventions: N/A

Main Outcome Measures: Health-related total self-efficacy as measured by the Self Rated Abilities for Health Practices Scale and physiologic measures

Results: Among the three groups, there were statistically significant differences in age, number of household members, time since injury, sex, race, marital status, and employment status. Blood pressure was lowest for individuals with SCI and HbA1C was highest for those with CVA. A linear regression model showed an association between injury type and total self-efficacy score after controlling for covariates. On average, individuals with SCI had an 11.2 point lower health-related total self-efficacy score (CI: -17.4, -5.0, p < 0.001) and those with TBI has a 9.5 point lower score (CI: -16.7, -2.4, p = .009) as compared to those with CVA.

Conclusions: Type of injury was significantly related to health-related self-efficacy, suggesting that following acquired brain injury or spinal cord injury one’s perception of eating a healthy diet, exercising, or maintaining health may differ based on different functional outcomes or experiences.

Author(s) Disclosures: This work was supported by three grants from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant numbers 90DPTB0013, 90IFRE0021, 90IFRE0022). The contents of this presentation do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR, ACL, HHS, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.