Carlozzi NE, Hanks R, Lange RT, Brickell TA, Ianni PA, Miner JA, French Psy D LM, Kallen MA, Sander AM. Arch. Phys. Med. Rehabil. 2019; 100(4S): S94-S101.
Affiliation
H. Ben Taub Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Baylor College of Medicine & Harris Health System, Houston, TX, USA; Brain Injury Research Center, TIRR Memorial Hermann, Houston, TX, USA.
OBJECTIVE: To provide important reliability and validity data to support the use of the PROMIS Mental Health measures in caregivers of civilians or service members/veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI).
DESIGN: Patient-reported outcomes surveys administered through an electronic data collection platform. SETTING: Three TBI Model Systems rehabilitation hospitals, an academic medical center, and a military medical treatment facility. PARTICIPANTS: 560 caregivers of individuals with a documented TBI (344 civilians and 216 military) INTERVENTION: Not Applicable MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: PROMIS Anxiety, Depression, and Anger Item Banks RESULTS: Internal consistency for all of the PROMIS Mental Health item banks was very good (all α >.86) and three-week test retest reliability was good to adequate (ranged from.65 to.85). Convergent validity and discriminant validity of the PROMIS measures was also supported. Caregivers of individuals that were low functioning had worse emotional HRQOL (as measured by the three PROMIS measures) than caregivers of high functioning individuals, supporting known groups validity. Finally, levels of distress, as measured by the PROMIS measures, were elevated for those caring for low-functioning individuals in both samples (rates ranged from 26.2% to 43.6% for caregivers of low-functioning individuals).
CONCLUSIONS: Results support the reliability and validity of the PROMIS Anxiety, Depression, and Anger item banks in caregivers of civilians and service members/veterans with TBI. Ultimately, these measures can be used to provide a standardized assessment of HRQOL as it relates to mental health in these caregivers.