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Europa Medicophysica 1998 December;34(4):189-201

Copyright © 1998 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Quality of life and social integration after traumatic brain injury: a two-year follow-up

Franceschini M., Perdon L., Bertagnoni G., Sgarabottolo E.

Divisione di Recupero e Rieducazione Funzionale, Unità Spinale, Presidio Ospedaliero di Vicenza, USSL n. 6 Vicenza - Regione Veneto

BACKGROUND: This ­study exam­ined the qual­ity of ­life and ­some ­aspects of ­social inte­gra­tion in a ­group of sub­jects who had suf­fered ­severe ­brain inju­ry.
METHODS: Inclusion cri­te­ria for the ­study ­were: age at trau­ma great­er ­than 5 ­years and sur­vi­val two-­years ­beyond treat­ment (min­i­mum fol­low-up). After a ret­ro­spec­tive clin­i­cal ­data col­lec­tion, a tele­phone sur­vey was car­ried out and ­this ­involved a ques­tion and ­answer for­mat refer­ring to dif­fer­ent ­aspects of ­social inte­gra­tion and a rat­ing ­system to ­assess ­life sat­is­fac­tion (­scale ­range 0-10). This sur­vey was ­also extend­ed to a ­close rel­a­tive of the ­patient. A ­total of 78 ­patients (mean age was 33.2 ­years) ­were select­ed, but ­only 61 ­patients actu­al­ly ­took ­part in the ­study. At fol­low-up sev­er­al alter­a­tions in rou­tine activ­ities (includ­ing ­work/­study), the use of lei­sure ­time, emo­tion­al stat­us and the pres­ence of ­pain ­were not­ed. All ­three sub­scales uti­lized for assess­ing func­tion­al capac­tities ­reached val­ues great­er ­than 6 in a con­sis­tent num­ber of cas­es.
RESULTS: The ­results of the ­study dem­on­strat­ed inter­est­ing cor­re­la­tions ­between ­both clin­i­cal ­data and the ­answers to the ques­tionn­aire. A par­tic­u­lar­ly sig­nif­i­cant cor­re­la­tion was ­found ­between ques­tion­naire ­items and the eval­u­a­tion ­made by the ­patient’s rel­a­tive.
CONCLUSIONS: This ­meant ­that the ques­tionn­aire uti­lized was ­more indic­a­tive of the ­patient’s ­well-­being as ­observed by a rel­a­tive rath­er ­than the ­patient him or her­self.