Citation

Carlozzi NE, Lange RT, French LM, Sander AM, Ianni PA, Tulsky DS, Miner JA, Kallen MA, Brickell TA. Arch. Phys. Med. Rehabil. 2019; 100(4S): S85-S93.

Affiliation

Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; National Intrepid Center of Excellence, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.apmr.2018.05.034

PMID

29966648

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To establish the reliability and validity of the newly developed TBI-CareQOL patient reported outcomes measures in caregivers of civilians and service members/veterans (SMVs) with traumatic brain injury (TBI) so that they can be used with confidence in clinical research and practice.

DESIGN: Computer-based surveys delivered through an on-line data capture platform. SETTING: Three TBI Model Systems rehabilitation hospitals, an academic medical center, and a military medical treatment facility. PARTICIPANTS: Five hundred and sixty caregivers of individuals with TBI; this included two different study samples: 344 caregivers of civilians with TBI and 216 caregivers of SMVs with TBI. INTERVENTION: Not Applicable MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: 5 TBI-CareQOL item banks RESULTS: Reliabilities for the TBI-CareQOL measures were excellent (all Cronbach's α >.88); three-week test-retest reliability ranged from.75 to.90 across the two samples. Convergent validity was supported by moderate to high associations among the TBI-CareQOL measures and moderate correlations between the TBI-CareQOL measures and other measures of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and caregiver burden. Discriminant validity was supported by low correlations between the TBI-CareQOL measures and less-related constructs (e.g., caregiver satisfaction). Known groups validity was supported: caregivers of individuals that were low functioning had worse HRQOL than caregivers of high functioning individuals.

CONCLUSIONS: Results provide psychometric support for the new TBI-CareQOL item banks. As such, these measures fill a significant gap in the caregiver literature where sensitive patient-reported outcomes (PRO) measures that capture changes in HRQOL are needed to detect improvements for interventions designed to assist family caregivers.

Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Language: en