Helene L. Soberg, Cecilie Roe, Audny Anke, Juan Carlos Arango-Lasprilla, Toril Skandsen, Unni Sveen, Nicole von Steinbüchel, Nada Andelic
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Ulleval University Hospital, NO-0407 Oslo, Norway. h.l.soberg@medisin.uio.no, helene.soberg@ulleval.no
DOI: 10.2340/16501977-1158

Objective: To assess health-related quality of life in individuals with severe traumatic brain injury at 12 months post-injury, applying the Quality of Life after Brain Injury (QOLIBRI) instrument, and to study the relationship between injury-related factors, post-injury functioning and health-related quality of life.
Design/subjects: The study is part of a prospective, Norwegian multicentre study of adults (≥ 16 years old) with severe traumatic brain injury, as defined by a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 3–8 during the first 24 h post-injury. A total of 126 patients were included.
Methods: Socio-demographic data and injury severity variables were collected. Functioning at 3 and 12 months was assessed with the Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended (GOSE), the Functional Independence Measure (FIM), the Rivermead Post-concussion Questionnaire (RPQ), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Hierarchical regression analysis was applied.
Results: Mean QOLIBRI score was 68. 5 (standard deviation = 18. 8). Predictors of the QOLIBRI in the final regression model were: employment status (p = 0. 05), GOSE (p = 0. 05), RPQ (p < 0. 001) and HADS (p < 0. 001). The adjusted R2 showed that the model explained 64. 0% of the variance in the QOLIBRI score.
Conclusion: Symptom pressure and global functioning in the sub-acute phase of traumatic brain injury and psychological distress in the post-acute phase are important for health-related quality of life at 12 months post-injury. These domains should be the focus in rehabilitation aiming to improve health-related quality of life in patients with severe traumatic brain injury.