A spinal cord injury (SCI) typically comes with a range of life-altering challenges, one of the most difficult being chronic pain. As part of my PhD research, I’ve launched a survey to learn more about the pain experienced by other Canadians living with SCI. This research is a critical step toward better understanding how pain affects individuals in our community and discovering ways to improve pain management.
The survey is designed to assess pain intensity, explore current treatment methods, and gain insight into the factors that impact pain. Beyond just pain, the survey also investigates how emotions, personality traits, anxiety, depression, support systems, resilience, sleep patterns, and exercise play a role in the pain experience. The information collected will provide valuable insights into how pain is experienced and managed within the Canadian SCI community. The data collected will guide future treatments and interventions aimed at reducing or eliminating pain. Canadians with SCI who are 18 years of age and older, and fluent in English, are eligible to complete the survey, which will take approximately 30 minutes. Participants do not need to currently experience pain to participate. The goal is to gather a wide range of experiences to help better understand and manage pain within the SCI community. As a token of appreciation an Amazon gift card will be provided to those who complete the survey. This research is being conducted under the guidance of Dr. Kathleen Martin Ginis, and is funded by Mitacs and Spinal Cord Injury Ontario (SCIO).
To participate or to learn more please contact me, Robert Buren, at robert.buren@ubc.ca. I’ll forward you the introduction letter and link to the survey.
To learn more about SCI and if you’d like to make a donation to Spinal Cord Injury Ontario, please visit: https://sciontario.org/research/participate-in-research/sci-pain-survey/ .