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Measurement of Outcomes from
Traumatic Brain Injury
After a traumatic brain injury when an individual is assessing him or
herself, the questions often fall into similar categories: what is the
effect of this injury on my health? my finances? my living situation?
my work or schooling? my relationships? We have sometimes characterized
this self-examination as the "quality of life questions:" How
long will I live? What will I live on? Where will I live? What will I
do? Whom will I love? How much choice will I have about the first five
answers?
As part of its envisioning process, the Ohio Valley Center’s Advisory
Council has identified the following individual challenges as those most
likely to affect the answers to the quality of life questions:
- Substance abuse
- Depression
- Inability to earn an adequate income
- Lack of supports/services to live independently
- Lack of transportation
- Difficulties finding meaningful employment
- Lack of opportunities for leisure activities
- Isolation from other people and the community
- Lack of assistance identifying and choosing options
- Lack of coordination among service providers
Systematic research on the these consequences of traumatic brain injury
presents many challenges in terms of the methods used to conduct studies.
Determining an outcome is a complex issue. Any outcome must be understood,
minimally, in the context of (a) what a person was like with regard to
this characteristic before the injury, (b) how old the person is, (c)
how severe the traumatic brain injury was, (d) how long ago the injury
was, and (e) what other problems a person may be dealing with might effect
the issue being studied.
There are also unique issues related to the research methods used. We have conducted studies on how to measure a person's re-integration into the community, what outcomes are related to each other, and whether the people we are not able to find at later follow-ups affects the conclusions we draw.