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Relationship of family functioning to progress in a post-acute rehabilitation programme following traumatic brain
Angelle M Sander1, Jerome S Caroselli, Walter M High
1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA. sandea@tirr.tmc.edu
Primary Objective:
To investigate the relationship of family functioning to patients' progress in a post-acute TBI rehabilitation programme.
Research Design:
Cohort study investigating predictors of change from admission to follow-up.
Methods And Procedures:
Caregivers of 37 persons with severe TBI consecutively admitted to a residential post-acute rehabilitation facility completed the Family Assessment Device (FAD) within a few weeks of admission. The Disability Rating Scale (DRS) was completed upon admission and approximately 1 month after discharge. FAD scores were used to predict DRS change scores after controlling for injury severity, admit FAD scores, and time from admission to follow-up.
Main Outcomes And Results:
Persons with unhealthy family functioning showed less improvement on DRS total, level of functioning (LOF), and employability (EMP) scores.
Conclusions:
The results emphasize that family functioning is an important variable to include in future models predicting rehabilitation outcome, and the importance of family intervention as part of the rehabilitation process.