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Published on: February 16, 2011
Self-reported psychosocial health among adults with traumatic brain injury
Melissa L McCarthy1, Sureyya S Dikmen, Jean A Langlois
1Department of Emergency Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21209, USA. mmccarth@jhmi.edu
Objective:
To measure the subjective psychosocial health of a population-based sample of adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Design:
Retrospective, cohort study involving a 1-year postinjury interview.
Setting:
Sixty-two acute care, nonfederal hospitals in South Carolina.
Participants:
Persons (> or =15y) hospitalized with TBI.
Interventions:
Not applicable.
Main Outcome Measure:
The psychosocial health scales of the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey.
Results:
Of the 7612 participants, 29% reported poor psychosocial health. Factors associated with poor psychosocial well-being included younger age, female sex, Medicaid coverage, no health insurance, inadequate or moderate social support, comorbidities (eg, a preinjury substance abuse problem), cognitive complaints, and some or a lot of limitation with activities of daily living. Only 36% of participants who reported poor psychosocial health reported receiving any mental health services.
Conclusions:
A substantial proportion of persons hospitalized with TBI reported poor psychosocial health at 1 year postinjury. To optimize recovery, clinicians need to ensure that patients' psychosocial health needs are addressed during the postacute period.
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