Memory outcome at 5 years post-childhood traumatic brain injury.
OBJECTIVE
This study seeks to extend previous findings by documenting memory performance in a sample of 70 children at 5 years post-injury. It was anticipated that increasing injury severity would be associated with decreased performance on working and complex memory tasks. It was also expected that injury severity would significantly predict memory, but that the time from insult to subsequent testing would be associated with an increased relationship to non-injury factors.


METHODS
Participants were assessed at 5 years post-injury, aged between 6-14 years, using measures of immediate, working and complex memory.


METHODS
The sample comprised 18 children who had sustained a severe TBI, 24 with a moderate TBI, 11 with a mild TBI and 17 healthy controls, matched for age, gender and socio-economic-status.


RESULTS
Results indicated that severe TBI was associated with decreased complex auditory-verbal memory performance, although children with TBI did not display impairment on immediate, working or complex visual-spatial memory. While injury severity significantly predicted complex memory outcome, non-injury factors failed to significantly predict either working or complex memory performance.


CONCLUSIONS
Future research should be engineered towards further clarifying what influences recovery from childhood TBI in the elongated post-injury period.
Anderson
Vicki
V
Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.
Catroppa
Cathy
C
D000293:Adolescent; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D015600:Glasgow Coma Scale; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology