Abstract:
While the TBI Model Systems Database has documented many of the important outcomes occurring after Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), it is only beginning to document truly long-term outcomes. As stated in NIDRR.s Long Range Plan, the Maintenance of Health and Function and Full Access to Community Life are key outcomes of interest with particular objectives to .identify predictors of community participation. and .examine the impact of environment and attitudinal barriers on the outcomes of individuals with TBI.. This study is designed to take advantage of Craig Hospital.s four decade history of rehabilitating people with TBI, to allow a cross-sectional analysis of the changing pattern of TBI outcomes and environmental barriers occurring throughout the decades following injury. One overarching research question guides this investigation: .Do long-term outcomes after TBI and the environmental factors that influence them differ by years post-injury, age at injury, or their interaction?. A sample of 280 people rehabilitated at Craig Hospital, representing seven cohorts of individuals at various time periods post-injury and two cohorts of individuals injured before and after age 30, are being interviewed using a battery of instruments assessing health and function, community integration, environmental factors, and quality of life. Analysis of the survey results will be used to better define the issues to be addressed, and identify appropriate measurement tools to be used, in future longitudinal data collection within the TBI Model Systems and other investigations of aging with TBI. More importantly, this study, by identifying problems faced by the longest-term survivors, should help design interventions to avoid, lessen, or delay those same problems in others, thereby improving the lives of more recent survivors of TBI. Project Status: Data collection will be completed by 10/2004.