The Assessment of Rate of Utilizing Rehabilitation Services among Spinal Cord Injured Cases of Bam Earthquake

Worldwide, every year, many people undergo spinal cord injury which is of the worst health problems and is followed by several secondary complications. Today, more than half of the world population is in danger of natural disasters such as earthquake, which is one of the causes of spinal cord injuries outbreak. Earthquake in Bam also caused many spinal cord injured people for whom utilizing rehabilitation services can help preventing secondary complications and increasing their independence. The present study has been performed to determine the assessment of rate of utilizing rehabilitation services by spinal cord injured people of Bam earthquake.. This research is a descriptive study in which 119 spinal cord injured people were selected as qualified for investigation cases. The necessary information was collected through using questionnaire. Then data analysis was carried out with SPSS software and utilizing descriptive statistics and Chi-Square Test. 65 men (55%) and 54 women (45%) with age average of 33.7 participated in this study. Most of the rehabilitation services which were accessible to the cases of study included: equipments for preventing bed sore, European toilet, urine bag and Foley catheter, Wheelchair, mobile rehabilitation team, and social assistance; and urban services and professional rehabilitation services were among those which were not accessible. The present study shows the necessity of a complete program to provide the best rehabilitation services for spinal cord injured people who were victims of Bam earthquake.