Citation

Hoofien D, Vakil E, Gilboa A, Donovick PJ, Barak O. Brain Inj. 2002; 16(1): 9-27.

Affiliation

The National Institute for the Rehabilitation of the Brain Injured & The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. mshoofi@mscc.huji.ac.il

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/02699050110088227

PMID

11796096

Abstract

The primary objective of this study was to measure the predictive power of pre-injury socio-economic status (SES), severity of injury and age variables on the very long-term outcomes of traumatic brain injury (TBI). By applying a within-subjects retroactive follow-up design and a factor analysis, the study also compared the relative power of sample-specific predictors to that of more commonly used variables and conceptually based factors. Seventy-six participants with severe TBI were evaluated at an average of 14 years post-injury with an extensive neuropsychological battery. The results show that pre-injury SES variables predict long-term cognitive, psychiatric, vocational, and social/familial functioning. Measures of severity of injury predict daily functioning, while age at injury fails to predict any of these variables. Sample-specific predictors were more powerful than more commonly used predictors. Implications regarding long-term clinically based and conceptually based prediction, and those regarding comparisons of predictors across samples are further discussed.

Language: en