title: Scheduled telephone intervention for traumatic brain injury: a multicenter randomized controlled trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effect of a Scheduled Telephone Intervention (STI) compared with usual care (UC) on function, health/emotional status, community/work activities, and well-being at 1 and 2 years after traumatic brain injury (TBI).
  
  
  METHODS
  Two group, randomized controlled trial.
  
  
  METHODS
  Telephone contacts with subjects recruited in inpatient rehabilitation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eligible subjects (N=433) with TBI (age>16y) were randomly assigned to STI plus UC (n=210) or UC (n=223) at discharge. STI subjects (n=169) completed the outcome at year 1 (118 at year 2) and 174 UC subjects at year 1 (123 at year 2).
  
  
  METHODS
  STI subjects received calls at 2 and 4 weeks and 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15, 18, and 21 months consisting of brief training in problem solving, education, or referral.
  
  
  METHODS
  A composite outcome at 1 year was the primary endpoint. Analysis on intent-to-treat basis used linear regression adjusted for site, Glasgow Coma Scale, race/ethnicity, age, FIM, sex, and Disability Rating Scale (DRS). Secondary analyses were conducted on individual and composite measures (FIM, DRS, community participation indicators, Glasgow Outcome Scale [Extended], Short Form-12 Health Survey, Brief Symptom Inventory-18, EuroQOL, and modified Perceived Quality of Life).
  
  
  RESULTS
  No significant differences were noted between the groups at years 1 or 2 for primary (P=.987 regression for year 1, P=.983 for year 2) or secondary analyses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study failed to replicate the findings of a previous single center study of telephone-based counseling. While telephone mediated treatment has shown promise in other studies, this model of flexible counseling in problem solving and education for varied problems was not effective over and above usual care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. krbell@uw.edu
authors.forename: Kathleen R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.forename: Jo Ann
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Brockway
authors.forename: Tessa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hart
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Whyte
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sherer
authors.forename: Robert T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Fraser
authors.forename: Nancy R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Temkin
authors.forename: Sureyya S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Dikmen
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D003663:Decision Trees; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D015600:Glasgow Coma Scale; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013689:Telephone; D016896:Treatment Outcome