Evaluating a Spinal Cord Injury–Specific Model of Depression and Quality of Life

Abstract Objectives To determine whether demographic, injury, health, and functional factors similarly have the same predictive relation with both somatic and nonsomatic symptoms of depression, as well as whether somatic and nonsomatic symptoms of depression have the same association with quality of life (QOL). Design Secondary analysis of cross-sectional survey data. Setting Community Participants Patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (N=4976) who completed an interview at 1 year postinjury between 2006 and 2011. Interventions Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures Somatic and nonsomatic symptoms of depression from the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and QOL measured by the Satisfaction With Life Scale. Results Structural equation modeling showed that the hypothesized model provided a good fit to the data, but modification of the model led to a significant improvement in model fit: Δχ2 (1)=226.21, P