title: Towards a composite scoring solution for the Neurobehavioral Functioning Inventory.
abstract: Little research has been conducted towards the development and evaluation of a measure of quality of life specific to head/brain injury populations. Accordingly, we examined responses to the Neurobehavioral Functioning Inventory in the context of a clinical trial for head injury patients (n = 655) conducted in 14 countries. To reduce the 66 item scale into a smaller number of composite scales, principal components analysis was conducted. Scales were constructed assessing four categories of symptoms: cognitive deficits, depression, aggression and somatization. The internal reliabilities (alpha coefficient) of the four scales were generally acceptable (range = 0.79-0.92). Scores on all four scales correlated significantly with patient-rated overall quality of life and all but the aggression scale correlated significantly with overall clinical severity. The need for more formal evaluation of this and other disease-specific measures is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Economics Research Unit, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20007, USA.
authors.forename: K P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Weinfurt
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Willke
authors.forename: H A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Glick
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Schulman
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards*; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*