Health-related quality of life in children with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury

Objective: To investigate health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in a sample of ethnically diverse children with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods: Twenty children with moderate-severe TBI and their parents were recruited from a TBI clinic at a paediatric rehabilitation hospital. Children's self-reported HRQOL was assessed with the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory. Parents completed a parallel proxy measure. Results: Children reported significantly lower Psychosocial HRQOL compared to their Total HRQOL, driven largely by low School HRQOL scores. Compared to other paediatric populations, children with TBI reported lower or equivalent HRQOL. Compared with children's self-reports, parents reported even lower HRQOL for their children across primary domains, with fair-to-moderate convergence between informants. Conclusions: Results provide preliminary evidence that children who have suffered moderate-severe TBI experience relatively poor HRQOL, particularly in the School domain. Limited convergence between informants suggests that children and parents perceive HRQOL differently, with parents reporting lower HRQOL.