Quality of Life after Brain Injury (QOLIBRI): scale validity and correlates of quality of life.
The QOLIBRI (Quality of Life after Brain Injury) is a novel health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) instrument specifically developed for traumatic brain injury (TBI). It provides a profile of HRQoL in six domains together with an overall score. Scale validity and factors associated with HRQoL were investigated in a multi-center international study. A total of 795 adults with brain injury were studied from 3 months to 15 years post-injury. The majority of participants (58%) had severe injuries as assessed by 24-h worst Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score. Systematic relationships were observed between the QOLIBRI and the Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOSE), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and SF-36. Within each scale patients with disability reported having low HRQoL in two to three times as many areas as those who had made a good recovery. The main correlates of the total QOLIBRI score were emotional state (HADS depression and anxiety), functional status (amount of help needed and outcome on the GOSE), and comorbid health conditions. Together these five variables accounted for 58% of the variance in total QOLIBRI scores. The QOLIBRI is the first tool developed to assess disease-specific HRQoL in brain injury, and it contains novel information not given by other currently available assessments.
von Steinbüchel
Nicole
N
Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Georg-August-University, Goettingen, Germany. nvsteinbuechel@med.uni-goettingen.de
Wilson
Lindsay
L
Gibbons
Henning
H
Hawthorne
Graeme
G
Höfer
Stefan
S
Schmidt
Silke
S
Bullinger
Monika
M
Maas
Andrew
A
Neugebauer
Edmund
E
Powell
Jane
J
von Wild
Klaus
K
Zitnay
George
G
Bakx
Wilbert
W
Christensen
Anne-Lise
AL
Koskinen
Sanna
S
Formisano
Rita
R
Saarajuri
Jana
J
Sasse
Nadine
N
Truelle
Jean-Luc
JL
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D015600:Glasgow Coma Scale / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D055815:Young Adult