Use of professional home care in persons with spinal cord injury in Switzerland: a cross‑sectional study

This study investigates the use of professional home care among individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) in Switzerland. It aims to identify the characteristics of home care users, the frequency of home care visits, and factors associated with home care use. The research utilizes data from the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study (SwiSCI) to compare home care users and non-users, examining sociodemographic factors, SCI-specific characteristics, secondary health conditions, and functional independence. The findings reveal that lower functional independence strongly predicts increased home care use, and that home care complements informal care, particularly for individuals living alone, with tetraplegia, or who are female.

• 1
  Lower functional independence strongly predicts increased home care use among individuals with SCI.
• 2
  Professional home care complements informal care, being more likely used by individuals with SCI who live alone, have tetraplegia, and are female.
• 3
  Women with SCI are more likely to use home care services but receive fewer hours of care per week compared to men.