Description

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating injury resulting from critical incidents like falls, sports- and traffic accidents, demanding lifelong specialist health care services. A major challenge is the prevalence of obesity following metabolic alterations after SCI. Obesity hampers independence and mobility and has a negative impact on quality of life. Accumulation of adipose tissue is reported to be higher than in able-bodied, explaining the high risk of cardiometabolic disease in the SCI population. Food intake is the supreme variable in prevention of obesity after SCI, however there is a paucity in studies investigating nutrition as a measure to prevent and reduce comorbidity. Key questions that remains unanswered are how early adipose tissue accumulates, if nutritional manipulations can prevent obesity and how follow-up can help maintain a healthy lifestyle. In the present three-part started-up PhD-study, we use MRI techniques to quantify accumulation of adipose tissue in a cohort study the first year after SCI, test the efficacy of a nutrition intervention to prevent obesity in a randomized controlled trial, and finally, we will test the feasibility of guided online-support to promote a healthy lifestyle after discharge from in-patient rehabilitation. Successful results will be implemented in care-programs at our hospital for those with SCI and similar mobility impairments, with the aim of improving nutrition practice throughout the course of treatment