Health-Related Quality of Life of Spinal Cord Injury Patients Visiting the Outpatient Clinic of a Tertiary Care Rehabilitation Center in Saudi Arabia: Results from a Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Spinal cord injury (SCI) patients face many difficulties in life, affecting their quality of life. This study evaluated the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of patients with spinal cord injury in Saudi Arabia and additionally identified the key determinants associated with lower scores. Methods: This cross-sectional study recruited 50 SCI patients from an outpatient clinic of a tertiary care rehabilitation center during the last quarter of 2024. The WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was used to assess the HRQoL across overall, physical, psychological, social, and environmental domains. The scale of scores was transformed to 0–100 using the formula. Descriptive statistics were used to present categorical variables in terms of frequencies and percentages, and continuous data as means and standard deviations. Inferential statistics were used to determine the relationship between the various dependent and independent variables. Results: Of the total sample of 50 SCI patients, 84% were caused by motor vehicle accidents, and 74% were at the paraplegia level. The mean age was 35 ± 10.46 years, the average time since the injury was 6.3 ± 6.0 years, and the mean number of admissions of the study patients was 3.2 ± 1.6. The overall HRQoL score was 75.5 ± 24.5, and the general health score was 66.5 ± 31.0. Among all the WHOQOL-BREF domains, the psychological domain achieved the highest score (71.7 ± 17.5), while the physical health domain scored the lowest (55.9 ± 18.8). Presence of neuropathic pain was significantly associated with lower scores across overall quality of life (p = 0.033), physical health (p = 0.022), and psychological health (p = 0.044). A notable correlation was identified between poor environmental health and the presence of spasticity (p = 0.042). Depression was significant (p = 0.047) in patients with low physical health scores. Conclusion: Neuropathic pain, spasticity, and depressive symptoms were the strongest determinants of lower HRQoL, indicating the importance of targeted multidisciplinary management.