Associations Between Objective Exercise Capacity and Subjective Surveys in Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury

Research Objectives: To investigate the associations between peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak) and two subjective surveys in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). Peak oxygen consumption is the objective gold standard of cardiorespiratory fitness; however, this method requires expensive equipment. Self-reported surveys might be a useful alternative. The Self-Rated Abilities of Health Practices (SRAHP) and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) are valid surveys in several populations, however, their utility in relation to fitness is unknown in the SCI population.

Design: This is a retrospective cross sectional study.

Setting: Data from the previous WOWii study was collected at a university laboratory

Participants: A total 47 subject records were included (Age: 46.3 +/- 11.2 years, VO2peak: 10.8 +/- 3.6 ml/kg/min, and time since injury: 13.3 +/- 11.7 years).

Interventions: No intervention involved. Previously, the VO2peak was tested with metabolic gas analysis on an arm ergometer.

Main Outcome Measures: There are three outcomes of interest: peak oxygen consumption, The Self-Rated Abilities of Health Practices (SRAHP) survey, and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) . Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations between VO2peak and the scores from the two surveys were conducted. Statistical significance was set at p< 0.05.

Results: For the tetraplegia subgroup, VO2peak data was significantly associated with (1) vigorous-intensity minutes of PA per day (r = 0.3, p< 0.05), (2) vigorous-intensity minutes per week (r = 0.4, p < 0.05), and (3) total minutes of walking per day on IPAQ survey (r = 0.6, p< 0.05). There were no significant associations between VO2peak and any self-efficacy variables of the SRAHP survey (p >0.05).

Conclusions: With limited residual muscle mass and spinal cord injury, the perception of moderate or vigorous intensity of physical activity in SCI population may not be similar to their non-injured counterpart. In addition, our small sample included incomplete and complete SCI subgroups. Exercise-related self-efficacy was unrelated to VO2peak and thus the SRAHP survey would not be a useful survey to gauge fitness levels among those with SCI.

Author(s) Disclosures: The authors have nothing to disclose.