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Spinal cord injury incidence
is estimated to be around 40 cases per million
people in the U.S., though there have not
been any studies in overall spinal cord
injury in the U.S. since 1970. Based on
the estimations, there are around 11,000
new cases of spinal cord injury each year.
Today the number of people in the U.S. who
currently has spinal cord injury is around
183,000 and 230,000 people.
Spinal cord injury affects
young adults the most, with 55% of spinal
cord injury sufferers being between 16-30.
The average age of a spinal cord injury
is 32.1, but there has been an increase
in the mean age at time of injury since
1973. Around eighty percent of spinal cord
injury patients are male, with the ratio
of injury four to one male to female.
Spinal cord injury is most
often caused by vehicle crashes, followed
by violence, falls, sports, and other injuries.
Cases of spinal cord injury as a result
of violence and falls have increased since
1973, with motor vehicle and sports spinal
cord injury decreasing.
Spinal cord injury that
results in paraplegia has a 40% average
return rate to work, while 30% of spinal
cord injury that results in quadriplegia
returns to work. Paraplegia is spinal cord
injury that is usually located as a lower
injury and affects just the legs and lower
parts of the body. Quadriplegia is a spinal
cord injury that affects the spine in the
cervical or neck level that can cause paralysis
in both the arms and the legs. Both forms
of spinal cord injury are sometimes caused
as a direct result of a personal injury.
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