Article

OBJECTIVE: To provide descriptive findings regarding the overall health status
and prevalence of medical comorbidities experienced by traumatic brain injury
(TBI) patients. DESIGN: Inception cohort design with cross-sectional follow-up at
1 to 15 years. SETTING: Rehabilitation hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Adults (N=258)
with moderate to severe TBI. INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE:
The Modified Cumulative Illness Rating Scale is a 14-item rating scale used to
indicate health status by rating impairment across 14 different domains. RESULTS:
The TBI sample had lower rates of comorbidities compared with other
rehabilitation populations, including stroke and orthopedic samples. The most
commonly encountered medical conditions within our sample were eyes, ears, nose,
and throat problems, psychiatric or behavioral disturbances, hypertension, and
musculoskeletal injury at mild to moderate severity. Prevalence of conditions did
not differ by sex, race, or cause of TBI. CONCLUSIONS:
The current TBI sample was
relatively healthy with few medical comorbidities. Further, the Modified
Cumulative Illness Rating Scale may better be used as a standardized checklist to
assess for the presence of co-occurring conditions, given the near absence of
conditions in the higher range of severity.
CI - Copyright (c) 2012 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS