Faculty

Health Sciences

Supervisor Name

Drs. Ali Bateman & Dalton Wolfe

Keywords

cardiometabolic risk factors, metabolic syndrome, spinal cord injuries

Description

Objective: 1) Determine the prevalence of cardiometabolic disease (CMD) risk factors in Canadian outpatients with spinal cord injury or disease (SCI/D); and 2) Augment CMD screening practices to reflect evidence-based guidelines using quality improvement initiatives.

Design: Chart audit of consecutive outpatients with SCI/D assessed after discharge from Parkwood Institute between October 2020 to December 2021 (n=78). Data collected included presence of and evidence-based screening for 4 CMD risk factors – obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus. Definitions for presence of these 4 CMD risk factors were established using clinical practice guidelines for persons with SCI/D.

Results: All CMD risk factors were highly prevalent amongst outpatients with SCI/D. Two of every 5 outpatients had ≥ 3 risk factors, indicating the presence of established CMD. Obesity was the most prevalent risk factor (84.2%), followed by dyslipidemia (80.7%), hypertension (47.4%), and diabetes mellitus (44.6%). Outpatient clinic screening for hypertension and obesity across 79 visits (n=43) was completed in 15.2% and 11.4% of appointments respectively.

Conclusions: The strikingly high CMD risk factor prevalence in this cohort of Canadian outpatients with SCI/D coupled with low screening rates in follow-up appointments reinforces the need for strategies to reduce preventable harm in the rehabilitation setting.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the staff at the Parkwood Institute outpatient clinic for their assistance with this project. As well, thank you to the Western USRI program and the Faculty of Health Sciences for their support.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Document Type

Paper

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Unmasking the silent killer to heart health: An evaluation of cardiometabolic risk and screening in outpatient spinal cord injury rehabilitation

Objective: 1) Determine the prevalence of cardiometabolic disease (CMD) risk factors in Canadian outpatients with spinal cord injury or disease (SCI/D); and 2) Augment CMD screening practices to reflect evidence-based guidelines using quality improvement initiatives.

Design: Chart audit of consecutive outpatients with SCI/D assessed after discharge from Parkwood Institute between October 2020 to December 2021 (n=78). Data collected included presence of and evidence-based screening for 4 CMD risk factors – obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus. Definitions for presence of these 4 CMD risk factors were established using clinical practice guidelines for persons with SCI/D.

Results: All CMD risk factors were highly prevalent amongst outpatients with SCI/D. Two of every 5 outpatients had ≥ 3 risk factors, indicating the presence of established CMD. Obesity was the most prevalent risk factor (84.2%), followed by dyslipidemia (80.7%), hypertension (47.4%), and diabetes mellitus (44.6%). Outpatient clinic screening for hypertension and obesity across 79 visits (n=43) was completed in 15.2% and 11.4% of appointments respectively.

Conclusions: The strikingly high CMD risk factor prevalence in this cohort of Canadian outpatients with SCI/D coupled with low screening rates in follow-up appointments reinforces the need for strategies to reduce preventable harm in the rehabilitation setting.

 

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