Association between age and incidence of deep vein thrombosis in patients with spinal cord injury: an observational cross-sectional study

Study designCross-sectional study.ObjectiveTo elucidate the association between age and incidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI).SettingRehabilitation Medicine Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of China University of Science and Technology.MethodsPatients from August 2018 to December 2020 with SCI (N = 260) were tertiles divided the age into three groups to analyze the association between age and incidence of DVT.ResultsAmerican Spinal Cord Injury Association impairment scale (AIS), urinary tract infection (UTI), pulmonary infection (PI), and anticoagulation therapy (AT) were confounders for the association between age and incidence of DVT. The incidence of DVT increased by 1.07-fold (Non-adjusted model, OR = 1.07, P < 0.001), 1.05-fold (Minimally-adjusted model: adjusted for confounders, OR = 1.05, P = 0.010) and 1.06-fold [Fully-adjusted model: adjusted for confounders and unbalanced probable variables: AIS, UTI, PI, AT, Sex, D-dimer(new), Fibrinogen (new), Modes of injury and Level of injury, OR = 1.06, P = 0.012] when age increased by 1 year. The incidence of DVT had an increasing trend with age in different age tertile in the three models (P for trend <0.05). Age had a linearly association with incidence of DVT (OR = 1.07, P = 0.065) and stable in different subgroups, for lower age, the association was also linearly (OR = 4.40, P = 1.000), for middle (fold point = 46.46, P < 0.001) and higher age (fold point = 66, P = 0.017), the association was curvilinear.ConclusionAge had a linearly association with incidence of DVT. Quitting smoking, preventing/treating UTI and AT should be adopted in advance for patients with SCI for all age, especially for older.