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Sensitivity of three recent questionnaires to mild traumatic brain injury-related effects
C Paniak1, K Phillips, G Toller-Lobe
1Department of Psychology, Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Objective:
To evaluate the sensitivity of three recently developed questionnaires to mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI)-related effects.
Design:
Comparison of an MTBI group, within 3 weeks of injury, to a normal control group.
Setting:
Outpatient rehabilitation clinic.
Subjects:
120 MTBI patients and 120 age, education, sex, and preinjury socioeconomic status-matched normal control subjects.
Main Outcome Measures:
The Problem Checklist (PCL) from the New York Head Injury Family Interview to assess MTBI symptoms, the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) to assess functional burden associated with health problems, and the Community Integration Questionnaire (CIQ) to assess home, social, and productive activities.
Results:
Patients' self-ratings on the PCL and SF-36, but not the CIQ, were generally worse than those of the normal controls. The largest differences were obtained on SF-36 measures that appear to assess musculoskeletal injury effects.
Conclusions:
The PCL and SF-36 show promise as sensitive measures of MTBI-related effects. The SF-36 may be particularly useful in evaluating associated musculoskeletal injuries, which might otherwise be overlooked by MTBI health care providers.