Predictors of personal care assistance for people with spinal cord injury

OBJECTIVE: To assess the predictors of personal care assistance (PCA) use in people with spinal cord injury (SCI). DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: Follow-up of individuals crossing their 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, or 25th anniversary of injury who underwent their initial rehabilitation at a Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems center. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 2154 participants (2547 records) who met the inclusion criteria for the National Spinal Cord Injury Database and had valid values for the main outcome measures. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Daily hours of paid, unpaid, and occasional PCA services. RESULTS: Differences in an interval version of the motor portion of the FIM trade mark instrument accounted for 26.3% of the variance in total PCA hours, Model Systems differences accounted for 9.3%, and no other predictor accounted for more than 2.1% of the variance. CONCLUSION: Activities of daily living functioning, as measured by the motor portion of the FIM, was the strongest predictor of PCA use among people with SCI.