Article

OBJECTIVE: To assess health-related quality of life in individuals with severe
traumatic brain injury at 12 months post-injury, applying the Quality of Life
after Brain Injury (QOLIBRI) instrument, and to study the relationship between
injury-related factors, post-injury functioning and health-related quality of
life. The study is part of a prospective, Norwegian multicentre
study of adults (>/= 16 years old) with severe traumatic brain injury, as defined
by a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 3-8 during the first 24 h post-injury. A total
of 126 patients were included. METHODS: Socio-demographic data and injury
severity variables were collected. Functioning at 3 and 12 months was assessed
with the Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended (GOSE), the Functional Independence
Measure (FIM), the Rivermead Post-concussion Questionnaire (RPQ), and the
Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Hierarchical regression analysis
was applied. RESULTS: Mean QOLIBRI score was 68.5 (standard deviation = 18.8).
Predictors of the QOLIBRI in the final regression model were: employment status
(p = 0.05), GOSE (p = 0.05), RPQ (p < 0.001) and HADS (p < 0.001). The adjusted
R2 showed that the model explained 64.0% of the variance in the QOLIBRI score.
CONCLUSION: Symptom pressure and global functioning in the sub-acute phase of
traumatic brain injury and psychological distress in the post-acute phase are
important for health-related quality of life at 12 months post-injury. These
domains should be the focus in rehabilitation aiming to improve health-related
quality of life in patients with severe traumatic brain injury.

Langue : ANGLAIS