Functional outcome for African Americans and Hispanics treated at a traumatic brain injury model systems centre

To describe the demographics, incidence and functional outcome for African Americans and Hispanics treated at a traumatic brain injury (TBI) model systems centre.

Retrospective data analysis of patients admitted to an acute inpatient rehabilitation national TBI model systems centre.

A tertiary care university medical centre participating in the NIDRR Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems project.

Eighty-seven patients with TBI admitted to a Model Systems acute intensive interdisciplinary rehabilitation setting between 1989-1999. Information was extracted from the National TBI Model Systems data base for demographics such as age, race, education, gender, marital and employment status, sponsorship, injury aetiology and severity.

Functional outcome was determined using the Functional Independence Measure (FIM), and the Disability Rating Scale (DRS) at the time of admission and discharge.

Descriptive statistics were completed using SPSS. African American (94.3%) and Hispanic (5.7%) patients were injured most often as a result of motor vehicle accidents (48.8%). Males comprised 86.2% of this population, which had an average age of 34.5 years (SD = 13.1). On admission, average GCS score was 7.8 (SD = 3.6), average DRS was 13.5 (SD = 5.8), and average FIM total score was 49.8 (SD = 26.5). Average length of unconsciousness was 5.2 days (SD = 27.9), while average length of post-traumatic amnesia was 41.9 days (SD = 59.3). At the time of injury, 78.2% of the patients were not married. The majority of patients (97.7%) had private residences and 88.5% returned to their original home. Most patients had at least a high school education or passed a high school equivalent exam (49.4%) and were employed (70.1%) at the time of injury. Only 7% of the patients had a history of prior TBI. With regard to substance use, only 34.2% of patients reported pre-morbid illicit drug use. However, 50.5% met criteria for heavy or moderate alcohol use rates. Only 35.6% of patients reported a pre-morbid history of arrests, with the average number of arrests equal to 4.5 (SD = 10.2). Within this population, the number of drug or alcohol related arrests was 4.8 (SD = 13.5).

Unmarried African American males, with an average age of 35 years, predominated at this institution. The primary mechanism of injury was motor vehicle accidents. The majority of patients had, at least, a high school education or passed an equivalency exam, were employed at the time of their injury and were discharged to their prior private residence. While half of the patients met criteria for moderate-to-heavy alcohol consumption, only one-third of the patients reported a history of pre-morbid illicit drug use. This descriptive analysis supports the need for further investigation of minority populations that sustain TBI and will enhance the accuracy of implications that minority status may have on functional outcome.