Trained data abstractors collected patient and injury data from patient medical records. The International Standards of Neurological Classification of SCI and its American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS)13 were used to describe the motor level and completeness of SCI. The Comprehensive Severity Index (CSI®) provided a measure of the medical severity of illness; a higher CSI score indicates a ‘sicker’ patient based on physiological symptoms documented for each of a patient's diseases, including comorbidities, at the time of rehabilitation admission and again for the full rehabilitation stay.14–18 The Functional Independence Measure (FIM®) was used to describe a patient's independence in specific motor and cognitive abilities at rehabilitation admission and discharge.19,20 Nurses who documented treatment data for the SCIRehab project completed a clinician profile that included their years of SCI rehabilitation experience at the start of the project.
The following categories for body mass index (BMI) were used: morbidly obese (>40 kg/m2), obese (30–40), and