The Predictive Power of the Dimensions of the Pender Health Promotion Model on the Daily Life Activities in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury in Shahrekord, Iran

Spinal cord injury is an acute, debilitating event, which leads to significant and permanent changes in the life of the patients. The present study aimed to determine the predictive power of the dimensions of the Pender health promotion model in relation to the daily activities of patients with spinal cord injury in Shahrekord, Iran in 2019.

This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 70 patients with spinal cord injury in the teaching hospitals of Shahrekord in 2019. The patients were selected via census sampling. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire based on the constructs of the Pender model and a standard questionnaire of daily activity measurement. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 21 using descriptive and analytical statistics.

The mean scores of daily activity and health promotion were 10.03±4.50 and 127.46±24.19, respectively. The results of the Pearson correlation-coefficient test indicated significant associations between daily activities and the constructs of the Pender health promotion model, including spiritual growth, health responsibility, physical activity, nutritional status, interpersonal relations, and stress management (P<0.05). In addition, the results of the regression analysis indicated the predictive power of the Pender pattern items to be 0.542, while the predictive power of the spiritual growth dimension was higher than the other dimensions.

According to the results, the level of health promotion behaviors in the patients with spinal cord injury was moderate, and the spiritual growth and stress management dimensions were the strongest predictors of daily activities. Therefore, it is recommended that interventions based on health promotion lifestyle be implemented in order to enhance the daily activities of these patients, with the main focus on planning on these two dimensions through the six constructs of the Pender health promotion model.