The epidemiology and health services utilization of spinal cord injury in British Columbia seniors.

This study describes the incidence and pattern of traumatic spinal cord injury and spinal fracture and examines health services utilization of spinal cord injury in seniors of British Columbia. The study period was April 1, 1991 to March 31, 2002. Complete health system data have been obtained for the seniors from the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research (CHSPR) at the University of British Columbia. Population denominators from BC Health Insurance Registry are used to construct annual age-sex specific rates of injury for the fiscal years 1991/92 through 2001/02. Mechanism of injury and level of spinal cord injury and spinal fracture will be quantified by using descriptive statistics. The annual incidence rate for spinal cord injury is 8.4 per hundred thousand populations whereas incidence rate for spinal fracture is 65.9 per hundred thousand populations. Falls were leading cause followed by motor vehicle collisions for both events. Following initial discharge, individuals with SCI had 1.72 more hospital visits and 2.44 more physician visits than the control group.--P.ii.