title: Patients' views on outcome following head injury: a qualitative study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Head injuries are a common occurrence, with continuing care in the years following injury being provided by primary care teams and a variety of speciality services. The literature on outcome currently reflects areas considered important by health-care professionals, though these may differ in some respects from the views of head injured individuals themselves. Our study aimed to identify aspects of outcome considered important by survivors of traumatic head injury.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-two individuals were interviewed, each of whom had suffered head injury between one and ten years previously from which they still had residual difficulties. Purposive sampling was used in order to ensure that views were represented from individuals of differing age, gender and level of disability. These interviews were fully transcribed and analysed qualitatively by a psychologist, a sociologist and a psychiatrist with regular meetings to discuss the coding.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Aspects of outcome mentioned by head injury survivors which have received less attention previously included: specific difficulties with group conversations; changes in physical appearance due to scarring or weight change; a sense of loss for the life and sense of self that they had before the injury; and negative reactions of others, often due to lack of understanding of the consequences of injury amongst both family and general public.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Some aspects of outcome viewed as important by survivors of head injury may be overlooked by health professionals. Consideration of these areas of outcome and the development of suitable interventions should help to improve functional outcome for patients.
authors.affiliation: Section of Clinical & Health Psychology, Old Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG, Scotland. p.g.morris@ed.ac.uk
authors.forename: Paul Graham
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: Lindsay
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Prior
authors.forename: Shoumitro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Deb
authors.forename: Glyn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Mayle
authors.forename: Caroline E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Burrow
authors.forename: Eleanor
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bryant
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D023261:Glasgow Outcome Scale; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D036301:Qualitative Research; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D012919:Social Behavior; D012944:Social Support; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome