Relationship of family functioning to progress in a post-acute rehabilitation programme following traumatic brain injury.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the relationship of family functioning to patients' progress in a post-acute TBI rehabilitation programme.


METHODS
Cohort study investigating predictors of change from admission to follow-up.


METHODS
Caregivers of 37 persons with severe TBI consecutively admitted to a residential post-acute rehabilitation facility completed the Family Assessment Device (FAD) within a few weeks of admission. The Disability Rating Scale (DRS) was completed upon admission and approximately 1 month after discharge. FAD scores were used to predict DRS change scores after controlling for injury severity, admit FAD scores, and time from admission to follow-up.


RESULTS
Persons with unhealthy family functioning showed less improvement on DRS total, level of functioning (LOF), and employability (EMP) scores.


CONCLUSIONS
The results emphasize that family functioning is an important variable to include in future models predicting rehabilitation outcome, and the importance of family intervention as part of the rehabilitation process.
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA. sandea@tirr.tmc.edu
Angelle M
AM
Sander
Jerome S
JS
Caroselli
Walter M
WM
High
Cory
C
Becker
Leah
L
Neese
Randy
R
Scheibel
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016896:Treatment Outcome