Community integration following multidisciplinary rehabilitation for traumatic brain injury

Primary objective : To determine the extent to which participation in a multidisciplinary rehabilitation programme and patient characteristics predict improvement in community integration following mild-to-moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Research design : A non-randomized case-control study was conducted employing a pre-test-post-test multiple regression design.

Methods and procedures : Archival data for 42 patients with mild-to-moderate TBI who completed the Community Integration Questionnaire (CIQ) at intake and again 6-18 months later were analysed. Half the sample participated in an intensive outpatient rehabilitation programme that provided multi-modal interventions, while the other half received no rehabilitation. The two groups were matched on age, education and time since injury.

Results : On the CIQ Home Integration scale, participation in rehabilitation and female gender predicted better outcome. On the Productivity scale, patients with a lower age at injury had better outcome. Outcome on both of these scales, as well as on the Social Integration scale, was predicted by the baseline pre-test score (initial severity).

Conclusions : Overall, multidisciplinary rehabilitation appeared to increase personal independence. It is also concluded that: (1) multivariate analysis can reveal the relative importance of multiple predictors of outcome; (2) different predictors may predict different aspects of outcome; and (3) more sensitive and specific outcome measures are needed.