An Examination of the Relationships among Social Networks and Loneliness on Health and Life Satisfaction in People with Spinal Cord Injury / Dysfunction.

Objective To examine the associations among social networks and loneliness on health and life satisfaction in adults with chronic spinal cord injury / dysfunction (SCI/D). Design Cross-sectional telephone survey study. Setting Tertiary SCI rehabilitation centre. Ontario, Canada. Participants Community-dwelling adults with chronic SCI/D (N=170). Intervention Not applicable Main Outcome Measures The main outcome measures were the Short-Form 36 (SF-36) to assess health and the Life Satisfaction-11 (LiSAT-11) to assess life satisfaction. Results A hierarchical regression model predicting physical health accounted for 24% (p Conclusions These findings highlight the importance of having access to family members in one's home for better physical and mental health post-SCI/D as well as the negative association between loneliness and mental health and life satisfaction. There is a need for approaches to ensure that people with SCI/D in the community feel supported to mitigate feelings of loneliness in order to optimize their health and wellbeing.