Assessment of everyday memory after severe head injury

This study investigates two everyday memory questionnaires: the Subjective Memory Questionnaire (SMQ) and the Everyday Memory Questionnaire (EMQ). Both self-ratings and relatives' ratings were collected from a severe head injured group and a control group. Head injured subjects were also assessed on the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT). On the SMQ, there was a significant difference between the head injured and control groups for both self and relatives' ratings. On the EMQ only relatives' ratings differed significantly between the two groups. When head injured subjects, which were rated as non-impaired by the RBMT, were excluded from group comparisons, all questionnaire measures showed significant differences between groups. Both EMQ and SMQ scores for relatives and self-ratings correlated significantly with RBMT scores. The utility of the everyday memory measures is discussed.