Social integration and life and family satisfaction in survivors of injury at 5 years postinjury

This study assessed the relationship of social integration (SI) to life satisfaction and family satisfaction among survivors 5 years after injury. Thirty-four matched pairs of injured patients were interviewed by telephone 60 months after initial discharge from the acute care setting. Respondents were matched according to sex, race, education, injury severity, and employment status before comparing high and low socially integrated persons on measures of family and life satisfaction. High and low SI groups were formed based on the Craig Handicap Assessment and Reporting Technique (CHART) SI Scale. The former consisted of patients scoring 100; the latter consisted of patients scoring 50 or less. Analyses of covariance, with age and injury type as covariates, were used to test for group differences. The high and low SI groups differed on both the life and the family satisfaction measures, with the high SI group reporting greater life and family satisfaction.