Predictors of Chronic Physical and Mental Quality of Life Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Shahrokh Yousefzade-Chabok, Sara Ramezani Kapourchali, Zoheir Reihanian, Ehsan Kazemnezhad Leili, Anoush Dehnadi Moghadam, Zahra Mohtasham Amiri

Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Guilan Road Trauma Research Center, Rasht, Iran.
Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Neurosurgery Department, Rasht, Iran.

DOI: 10.4236/health.2014.66069                

Abstract

Objective and Background: This study aimed at determining the predictors of chronic physical and mental quality of life (QOL) in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) focusing on neuropsychological functions post trauma. Materials and Methods: This is a longitudinal study in which 257 patients having inclusion criteria were enrolled. Neuropsychological tasks including logical memory, verbal paired associates, visual memory, verbal expression, auditory comprehension, semantic judgment and semantic categories were implemented. The appearance of psychiatric disorder, Agnosia, Apraxia, Dysarthria and pragmatic linguistic disorder post trauma were evaluated at discharge. QOL was studied 6 months after injury by filling SF-36 questionnaire via phone interview with patients. Results: Appearance of some post-traumatic disorders including agnosia, pragmatic linguistic disorder and psychiatric disorder were significantly correlated to poor QOL. The final step of logistic regression model showed that TBI severity, verbal memory, auditory comprehension and semantic acceptability scores were predictors of unfavorable mental QOL as well as TBI severity, injury severity scale (ISS) score and multifocal lesions for unfavorable physical QOL. Discussion: Thus, it is recommended that clinicians choose medical therapeutic priorities to improve the verbal neuropsychological sequela and provide preliminaries for a chronic favorable mental QOL. Furthermore, to prevent of chronic unfavorable physical QOL, early care of organic injuries should be considered especially in patients with severe and multifocal TBI.

Keywords

Traumatic Brain Injury; Physical and Mental Quality of Life; Short Form-36 Questionnaire; Neuropsychological Functions

1. Introduction

Traumatic brain injury is one of the major causes of persistent disability in people under 45 years old [1] . These disabilities underlie many of daily dysfunctions in individuals, playing an important role in reducing the functional independence, social and communicative activities of patients which consequently bring about a poor QOL, inhibiting motility and make them isolated [2] [3] . Dynamic mental processes which are impaired in these patients include attention, working memory, organizing sensory information, linguistic perception and expression, reasoning and problem-solving which are among main neuropsychological functions. Impairment in perception and expression of emotional load of speech through either verbal prosody or facial gestures is a pragmatic linguistic disorder after TBI and involves brain areas related to emotions such as amygdala and other parts related to limbic system which are also parts of the brain most susceptible to damage from trauma [4] . Damage to orbitofrontal cortex, a part of anterior limbic cortex, leads to anti-social behaviors and mood disorders [5] [6] . Studies related to assessment of post-traumatic long-term outcomes suggest that persistent cognitive and emotional disorders are adverse outcomes after TBI which affect satisfaction and quality of life [7] [8] . De Almeida Lima and his coauthors found that in patients with mild brain injury, 18 months after trauma QOL in all dimensions of SF-36 except physical function decreased significantly and neuroimaging findings in acute phase could predict mental health dimension of QOL in SF-36 scale in chronic phase [9] . In another study, it was discovered that poor social and psychological dimensions of QOL one year after injury were significantly correlated with age, gender, post-trauma cognitive deficit but not with severity of brain injury [10] . In an effort which was carried out to determine the predictors of QOL 9 months after subarachnoid hemorrhage, patients with Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) 5 at discharge had a poor QOL in SF-36 general health and social dimensions which was predictable by factors such as severity of initial hemorrhage and acute hydrocephalus [11] . Quality of life is known as a valid and proper measuring criterion of clinical outcome [12] . Despite of these evidences, one ambiguity is unanswered yet: which of the acute neuropsychological functions are most crucial for prediction of chronic mental QOL? This study aimed at determining the acute effectors on chronic physical and mental QOL in TBI patients. If we obtain this purpose, an opportunity will be provided for prioritization of early intervention in order to reduce the effect of deteriorating factors on chronic QOL, eventually causing a good chronic QOL for suffered patients.

2. Material & Method

In a longitudinal cross-sectional study, 257 Persian speaking patients with brain injury documented by abnormal CT finding in age range of 18 to 65 years who were treated in neurosurgery ward of Poursina Teaching Hospital, North of Iran from June 2010 to December 2011 were consecutively entered in the study after obtaining written informed consent. The participants had good recovery or mild disability according to GOS [13] at discharge. Patients with following conditions were excluded: mental retarded, non-traumatic physical-motor problem, history of speech and linguistic disorders, history of psychological problems and antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs consumption, history of neurological problems such as neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, seizure and brain tumor, spinal cord injury and previous brain damage, history of drug abuse, and patients developing Anosognosia after TBI. There was a 12% dropout of initial sampling, 31 patients discontinued this research. The algorithm of study from screening of subjects and initial sampling to final step is illustrated in Figure 1. Overall, remained samples were separated into two groups with respect to QOL state. 118 and 108 subjects were belonged to favorable and unfavorable QOL, respectively. These groups were matched in terms of the gender and education level regarding the Table 1. The severity of TBI was determined according to primary post resuscitation consciousness based on GCS [13] and injury severity based on ISS [14] were identified by a physician. CT scan was performed within 24 hrs after trauma and type and site of lesion were diagnosed by an independent radiologist. We regarded two injury classifications based on type and site of injury. First classification was performed according to its morphology [13] . Wherever a kind of bleeding was accompanied by one or more other lesions such as edema, contusion, pneumocephalus or another hemorrhage, we added a subcategory as “accompanied

Figure 1. Algorithm of study accompanied by time course.

hemorrhage”. Last classification concerned anatomical location including involved brain areas such as cerebral lobes and brain stem. Multiple lesions were defined as homogenesis or heterogenesis, homolateral or bilateral lesions in at least two different portions. Neuropsychological assessments were carried out at discharge using subtests from Persian Aphasia Test including confronting naming and auditory comprehension such as word discrimination and simple commands [15] as well as semantic acceptability and categories subtests extracted from Bilingual Aphasia Test [16] . Revised Persian version of Wechsler Adult Memory Scale was also used to evaluate logical memory and verbal paired associates and visual memory after brain trauma [17] . Then, by using direct observation method and providing a set of tasks and predefined commands for patients in a semi-structured evaluation, Agnosia, dysarthria, pragmatic linguistic disorder and Apraxia were assessed by a speech and language pathologist. Psychiatric disorder post trauma was evaluated by a psychiatrist according to DSMIV-TR criteria [18] . To assess QOL 6 months after injury, the patients were interviewed via telephone call. The Persian SF-36 questionnaire for assessment of QOL was filled. SF-36 scoring is between 0 - 100, higher scores indicate a good QOL. Scores > 60 signify good QOL and scores < 60 suggest unfavorable QOL [19] .

Data Analysis

Collected data was analyzed by SPSS Version 16.00. Univariate analyses were performed using Chi-square test to study the difference of qualitative variables between QOL groups. In order to determine the acute predictive factors for chronic physical and mental QOL, multiple logistic regression by Back Ward method was applied. Parametric T-test was administered to examine the significant difference of quantitative variables between favorable and unfavorable QOL groups. Hypothesis tests were two-tailed and the significance level in all tests was considered 0.05.

3. Results

Studying the results of univariate analysis to determine the effective factors on chronic QOL of patients showed that neurosurgical intervention was not a significant effective factor. Younger patients (P < 0.029) had poorer QOL than older ones. High ISS score (mean ± SD: 27.28 ± 13.95, t = 7.74, df = 224, P > 0.001), and increased

Table 1. Characteristics of TBI patients according to chronic QOL state.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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