Etiology of traumatic brain injury: characterization of differential outcomes up to 1 year postinjury.
OBJECTIVE
To characterize outcomes after traumatic brain injury (TBI) resulting from vehicular crashes, violence, falls, or other causes.


METHODS
Prospective, multicenter, longitudinal.


METHODS
Seventeen Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems.


METHODS
A total of 1,170 individuals with moderate to severe TBI with data from initial medical and rehabilitation stays and 1-year follow-up.


METHODS
Not applicable.


METHODS
At rehabilitation discharge, FIM instrument, Disability Rating Scale (DRS), and Rancho Los Amigo Levels of Cognitive Functioning Scale. At 1 year postinjury, FIM, DRS, Community Integration Questionnaire (CIQ), employment, residence, marital status, and seizure occurrence.


RESULTS
The 4 etiology groups could be distinguished based on premorbid characteristics. Severity of injury indices indicated that individuals in vehicular crashes showed a trend toward incurring more severe injuries than the other 3 groups. At rehabilitation discharge, there were no functional differences between groups. At 1 year postinjury, the groups could be differentiated: individuals in violence-related TBI had higher unemployment rates and lower CIQ scores; persons in vehicular crashes reported the best functional and psychosocial outcomes; and individuals in the falls and other groups had outcomes lying between the vehicular and violence groups.


CONCLUSIONS
This study elucidated important differences between persons with violence-related TBI and those with non-violence-related TBI. Further research is needed to find effective interventions to address these differences.
Bushnik
Tamara
T
Rehabilitation Research Center and Deptartment of PM&R, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose, CA 95128, USA. tamara@tbi-sci.org
Hanks
Robin A
RA
Kreutzer
Jeffrey
J
Rosenthal
Mitchell
M
D000058:Accidental Falls; D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000209:etiology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014478:Unemployment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014754:Violence