title: Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention on Reducing Misconceptions Among Ethnic Minorities With Complicated Mild to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.
abstract: To evaluate the effectiveness of an educational intervention designed to reduce traumatic brain injury (TBI)-related misconceptions among blacks and Latinos with complicated mild to severe TBI.
  
  
  
  Randomized controlled trial with masked 1-month follow-up.
  
  
  
  Community.
  
  
  
  Persons (N=52) with complicated mild to severe TBI (mean best day 1 Glasgow Coma Scale score, 11.27±3.89) were randomly recruited from 141 eligible participants (mean age, 37.71±13.88y; age range, 19-66y; mean months postinjury, 24.69±11.50); 25 participants (48.1%) of participants were black and 27 (51.9%) were Hispanic/Latino. Of the Hispanic/Latino participants, 18 (66.7%) were non-U.S. born and 12 (44.4%) spoke Spanish as their primary language. Twenty-seven individuals were randomized to the educational intervention group and 25 were randomized to the wait-list control group.
  
  
  
  Single-session educational intervention with written materials provided in English or Spanish.
  
  
  
  Forty-item Common Misconceptions about Traumatic Brain Injury Questionnaire administered at baseline and 1-month follow-up.
  
  
  
  After controlling for ethnic and language differences, a significant between-group main effect (P=.010) and a significant time-group interaction for the Common Misconceptions about Traumatic Brain Injury Questionnaire were noted (Wilks Λ=.89; F1,46=6.00; P=.02). The intervention group showed a decrease in TBI misconception percentages, whereas the wait-list control group maintained similar percentages. At 1-month follow-up, the wait-list control group reported more misconceptions than did the intervention group (P=.019).
  
  
  
  An educational intervention developed to address the recovery process, common symptoms, and ways to handle the symptoms provides promise as a tool to decrease TBI misconceptions among persons from ethnically and educationally diverse backgrounds. The effects of therapist characteristics and the client-therapist relation on outcomes should be further explored.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Human Performance, University of Houston, Houston, TX; Brain Injury Research Center, TIRR Memorial Hermann, Houston, TX; Graduate College of Social Work, University of Houston, Houston, TX. Electronic address: mrpappad@utmb.edu.
authors.forename: Monique R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Pappadis
authors.affiliation: Brain Injury Research Center, TIRR Memorial Hermann, Houston, TX; Departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation & Beth K. and Stuart C. Yudofsky Division of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX; Harris Health System, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Center for Neurotrauma Rehabilitation, Houston, TX.
authors.forename: Angelle M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Sander
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Neuropsychology and Psychology, University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.
authors.forename: Beata
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Łukaszewska
authors.affiliation: Brain Injury Research Center, TIRR Memorial Hermann, Houston, TX.
authors.forename: Margaret A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Struchen
authors.affiliation: Graduate College of Social Work, University of Houston, Houston, TX.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Human Performance, University of Houston, Houston, TX.
authors.forename: Dennis W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000070642:Brain Injuries, Traumatic / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Brain injuries, traumatic; Education; Ethnic groups; Minority groups; Rehabilitation