Health status of veterans with spinal cord injury during screening program in Tehran 2013: Investigating the pulmonary function - a preliminary report

Respiratory problems are a major cause of mortality in people with spinal cord injury. More than 2000 veterans with spinal cord injury live in Iran. This study aimed to evaluate the pulmonary function of veterans with spinal cord injury participating in the health-screening program in Tehran-2013. This retrospective descriptive study was conducted by reviewing participants’ medical records. All veterans (368) were male with the mean age of 49.62 ± 6.45 years. The mean time since injury was 27.17 ± 5.03 years; 32 veterans (8.7%) suffered from tetraplegia and 336 (91.3%) were paraplegic; 120 veterans (32.6%) had complete spinal cord injury and 248 had incomplete spinal cord injury (67.4%). Among them, 159 veterans had difficulty coughing; 198 complained of dyspnea and 119 had a history of hospitalization for pneumonia during the last year. It seems that veterans’ pulmonary status in the screening was appropriate indicating the suitability of periodic visits to veterans in the home care program. It is suggested that future studies be conducted simultaneously with health screening programs.