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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major public health issue, which results in significant mortality and long term disability. The profound impact of TBI is not only felt by the individuals who suffer the injury but also their care-givers and society as a whole. Clinicians and researchers require reliable and valid measures of long term outcome not only to truly quantify the burden of TBI and the scale of functional impairment in survivors, but also to allow early appropriate allocation of rehabilitation supports. In addition, clinical trials which aim to improve outcomes in this devastating condition require high quality measures to accurately assess the impact of the interventions being studied. In this article, we review the properties of an ideal measure of outcome in the TBI population. Then, we describe the key components and performance of the measurement tools most commonly used to quantify outcome in clinical studies in TBI. These measurement tools include: the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) and extended Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOSe); Disability Rating Scale (DRS); Functional Independence Measure (FIM); Functional Assessment Measure (FAM); Functional Status Examination (FSE) and the TBI-specific and generic quality of life measures used in TBI patients (SF-36 and SF-12, WHOQOL-BREF, SIP, EQ-5D, EBIQ, and QOLIBRI).

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.injury.2010.11.047

Type

Journal

Injury

Publication Date

03/2011

Volume

42

Pages

281 - 287

Addresses

Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care - Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3004, Australia. alistair.nichol@med.monash.edu.au

Keywords

Humans, Brain Injuries, Disability Evaluation, Activities of Daily Living, Glasgow Outcome Scale, Recovery of Function, Quality of Life, Female, Male, Checklist, Outcome Assessment, Health Care