ArticlesReturn to productive activity after traumatic brain injury: Relationship with measures of disability, handicap, and community integration☆,☆☆,★,★★,♢
Section snippets
Subjects
A total of 378 adults (age, >17yr) had sustained a TBI between September 1997 and May 1998 and were enrolled in the Carolinas Medical Center Trauma Registry. This registry includes those patients who were admitted through the trauma system or required an inpatient admission for longer than 24 hours. Patients in this study were excluded if they had retired from employment before their injury or if their premorbid activity level was unknown. Of the 378 candidates, 185 patients and family members
Study sample
Demographic and premorbid characteristics of the population are in table 1. Table 1: Descriptive statisticsEmpty Cell Empty Cell n % Gender Male 82 78 Female 23 22 Race White, non-Hispanic 81 77 All others 24 23 Age (yr) <50 86 82 ≥50 19 18 Payer Medicare 3 3 Medicaid 24 23 Managed Care/BCBS/commercial/auto/government 58 55 Workers compensation 11 10 Self-pay 9 9 Education KN8 5 5 9-12 28 27 High school/GED 32 30 Some college 27 26 Associate’s degree 5 5 Bachelor’s degree 6 6 Master’s degree 2 2 Employed full-time preinjury Yes 88 84 No 13 12 Missing 5 5 Alcohol use preinjury Yes 37 35 No 68
Discussion
Return to employment has traditionally been used to define successful vocational outcome. However, that criterion may be misleading if one does not consider those who return as homemakers or students or go from employment to homemaker or student as having a successful vocational outcome. This error becomes particularly important when the heterogeneous demographics and injury severity levels of the TBI population are taken into account. Consequently, we chose RTPA, as opposed to return to work,
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Carolinas Medical Center Trauma Registry, Linda Spallone, RRA, and Michael Thomason, MD, and Charlotte Institute of Rehabilitation research analysts, Hadley Hartwell, Anne Abner, and Anita Kubin.
References (20)
- et al.
Acute predictors of successful return to work 1 year after traumatic brain injury: a multicenter analysis
Arch Phys Med Rehabil
(1997) - et al.
Epidemiologic aspects of brain injury
Neurol Clin
(1996) - et al.
Mild traumatic brain injury from motor vehicle accidents: factors associated with return to work
Arch Phys Med Rehabil
(1999) - et al.
Explaining quality of life for persons with traumatic brain injuries 2 years after injury
Arch Phys Med Rehabil
(1995) - et al.
The Community Integration Questionnaire revisited: an assessment of factor structure and validity
Arch Phys Med Rehabil
(1999) - et al.
Traumatic brain injury in the United States: a public health perspective
J Head Trauma Rehabil
(1999) - et al.
Factors influencing failure to return to work due to traumatic brain injury
Brain Inj
(1996) - et al.
Effects of mild, moderate and severe closed head injury on long-term vocational status
Brain Inj
(1990) - et al.
Head injury, an empirical study: describing long-term productivity and independent living outcome
Brain Inj
(1989) - et al.
One year outcome in mild to moderate head injury: the predictive value of acute injury characteristics related to complaints and return to work
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry
(1999)
Cited by (0)
- ☆
Supported by the Health Services Foundation of the Carolinas HealthCare System and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research Traumatic Brain Injury Model System at the Charlotte Institute of Rehabilitation (grant no. H133A980025).
- ☆☆
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit upon the authors(s) or upon any organization with which the author(s) is/are associated.
- ★
Reprint requests to Amy Wagner, MD, Dept of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Pittsburgh, 3471 Fifth Ave, Kaufmann Bldg Ste #901, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, e-mail: [email protected].
- ★★
Supplier
- ♢
a. SAS Institute Inc, SAS Campus Dr, Cary, NC 27513.