Quality of Life Following Traumatic Brain Injury: A Prospective Study

The purpose of this study was to describe QOL following TBI and to determine whether early signs of injury severity predict QOL at 4 years postinjury. Early measures included Glasgow Coma Scale, loss of consciousness (LOC), and a measure of PTA (days to recall of three words (REC)). Quality of life...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Brain and cognition 2000-10, Vol.44 (1), p.35-39
Main Authors: Dawson, D.R., Levine, B., Schwartz, M., Stuss, D.T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The purpose of this study was to describe QOL following TBI and to determine whether early signs of injury severity predict QOL at 4 years postinjury. Early measures included Glasgow Coma Scale, loss of consciousness (LOC), and a measure of PTA (days to recall of three words (REC)). Quality of life measures included the Reintegration to Normal Living Index, Flanagan’s QOL Scale, and a single QOL item. Subjects (n = 49) seen at follow-up (mean 4.4 years postinjury) had a significantly longer LOC than those lost to follow-up (n = 43). Results showed that 70 to 80% of subjects reported a good QOL. Multivariate regression showed REC to be the only significant predictor of QOL. These findings suggest that factors other than injury severity and PTA contributing to QOL.
ISSN:0278-2626
1090-2147
DOI:10.1006/brcg.1999.1208