Quality of life and perception of illness in patients with traumatic brain injury

Objective: To examine QoL and perception of illness in adult patients with a mild to moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods and procedure: Thirty patients gave consent for participation in the study. Questionnaires included Rivermead Post Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire (RPQ), Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS), WHO Quality of Life - BREF Version and Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ). Results: Cognitive and emotional complaints were reported by most of the patients. Higher percentages of patients fall in the medium range on all the four domains QoL. However on social and physical domain of QoL, the percentage is to some extent higher on the low range. On IPQ higher percentages fall within low and medium range. However on the coherence and emotional subscales of the IPQ, a higher percentage of patients fall in the higher range. Physical, psychological, environmental domains of QoL were found significantly correlated with overall subscale of IPQ at 0.01 and 0.05 level of significance. And a significant difference was also noted between mild and moderate TBI on IPQ but not on QoL. Conclusions: The research findings highlight the need to emphasis not on physical but on psychosocial dimensions of individual as well, which may lead to better recovery and outcome. Copyright (C) 2013, Neurotrauma Society of India. All rights reserved.