Motivational Interviewing to Reinforce Coping and Improve Quality of Life in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury

Objectives: Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) can adversely affect ones’ life and coping with it is very important. The present study reported the effects of reinforcing coping strategies using Motivational Interviewing (MI).  Methods: This was a case report of 5 males with SCI, with the Mean±SD age and time passed since the SCI of 34±15.9 years and 20.6±16.6, respectively. The study participants were examined as part of routine clinical services at the Physiotherapy Department of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital. Fifteen minutes of MI was individually provided to the study participants two times a week and for three weeks. Data were collected using the American Spinal Cord Injury Association (ASCIA) impairment scale, COPE inventory, and Spinal Cord Injury-Quality of Life (SCI-QoL) questionnaire. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.  Results: The obtained results revealed that all participants gained scores ranging from 3-4 on the satisfaction domain of quality of life at the baseline, which increased to 5 at the post-intervention phase. For the importance domain of quality of life, all patients had a maximum score of 5 at the baseline, which remained unchanged at post-intervention.  Discussion: People living with SCI can benefit from MI in terms of improved coping strategies. However, these findings are limited due to the nature of the study design and the sample size. Therefore, more rigorous study designs are required to further investigate the findings of this study.