Nutrition and skin care in spinal cord injury: Knowledge, perceived importance, confidence and readiness to change

Background. The purpose of this study was to investigate certain aspects of why some patients with a spinal cord injury may or may not develop pressure sores after a rehabilitation program, namely, the knowledge of nutrition guidelines and skin care strategies, the perceived importance of these topics, confidence in one's ability to change behavior, and readiness to change.;Methods. A content validity test on the survey tool and a feasibility test with 5 patients in the Transitional Rehabilitation Services outpatient SCI program were conducted. One hundred surveys were mailed to former patients of the Long Beach Memorial SCI Rehabilitation program. Knowledge scores on Nutrition Therapy Guidelines and Skin Care Strategies and scores for Perceived Importance, Confidence and Readiness to Change their personal skin care practices were determined using a 10-point Motivational Interviewing Ruler. Twenty completed surveys were returned for data analysis.;Results. There were no significant differences between pressure sore groups for either knowledge scores or scores using the 10-point Motivational Interviewing Ruler.;Conclusion. More research is needed on using Motivational Interviewing techniques in the SCI population, related to specifically pressure sore prevention and behavior change.