Paper
Wednesday, 19 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Adult Health
Impairments Following Traumatic Brain Injury and their Relationship with Perceived Distress Levels in Caregivers
Meei-Fang Lou, RN, PhD, School of Nursing, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
Learning Objective #1: Name three most frequently reported neurobehaviors from patients after traumatic brain injury.
Learning Objective #2: Name four significant predictors to caregiver’s health status of traumatic brain injured patient.
The purpose of the study was to understand the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial outcomes following traumatic brain injury and their relationship with perceived distress levels in family caregivers. Data were collected in a traumatic head injury out patient clinic of a medical center on northern Taiwan. Interview, self-report questionnaire and medical record review were used for data collection. A total of 65 patients with a mean age of 45years were recruited to this study. The average time post injury was 20 months. Patients' functional status, measured by Barthel Index, ranged from 0 to 100 with a mean of 83.9. Patients' cognitive function, measured by MMSE, ranged from 0-30 with a mean of 23. The most frequently reported neurobehaviors were memory deficit, fatigue, and somatic concern. After patient's injury, the reported health status, measured by Chinese health questionnaire, of caregivers was poor to moderate; their perceived social support was moderate to good; and their perceived quality of life was poor. Caregiver's distress level was correlated significantly with patient's neurobehaviors (r = 0.79, p = 0.000), and caregiver's health status(r = 0.52, p = 0.000). The longer the duration after injury, the less perceived social support of caregiver (r = -0.25, p = 0.047). Four factors, perceived social support of the caregivers (beta = -0.24, p = 0.030), caregiver's age(beta = -0.45, p = 0.000), caregiver's years of education (beta = -0.42, p = 0.001), and patient's neurobehavioral score (beta = 0.35, p = 0.002), were significant predictors for caregiver's health status. A total of 37.1% variance was accounted for by these four factors. The results of the study will be used to identify risk group earlier and set up effective interventions for brain injury patients and their family caregivers for next step study.

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