Impact of COVID-19 on socio-behavioural, health and oral health-related aspects on spinal cord injury patients: a cross-sectional study

Background: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a damaging, life-altering injury, which is estimated to have an annual global incidence of 40 to 80 cases per million population and is two to five times more possible to die prematurely. This study aims to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on socio-behavioural, health, and oral health-related aspects of spinal cord injury patients. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 50 spinal cord injury patients in the rehabilitation center in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, which was conducted between May and June 2022. Results: The comparison of mean distribution scores based on DMFT showed that complete injury patients had a lower DMFT score of 6.40 when compared to incomplete injury (8.41). The periodontal status assessment revealed that SCI with complete injury had a lower mean number of teeth with gingival bleeding and periodontal pocket (3.81 and 2.31 respectively) when compared to incomplete injury (7.12 and 4.49). Moreover, the impact of COVID-19 on the socio-behavior and health status was found to be higher in complete injury than that in incomplete injury patients. Conclusions: Therefore, this pandemic highlights the need to advocate the development of a nationwide SCI registry or surveillance system is fundamental to an understanding of the epidemiology and, hence, the prevention of this emerging health burden.