Quality-of-life: Child and Parent Perspectives Following Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

Purpose: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can produce temporary or permanent impairment. Quality-of-life (QoL) after TBI has been well studied in adults, but less so in children. The aim of this study was to assess the QoL of children with TBI and compare the findings with the evaluations of parents and children without brain injury.

Methods: Participants were 23 children with TBI, mean age 11 years, who had been treated at the SARAH Network of Rehabilitation Hospitals. Participants were matched by age, sex, parents' socio-cultural level and place of residence with 23 other children who had no history of brain injury. The instruments used were the SARAH QoL Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, the SARAH Physical-Functional Classification of the Child and Adolescent and a structured interview with parents.

Results: The results demonstrated that, in an average 4 years after the accident, all of the children with TBI were attending school and most could walk independently. The parents' reports about post-TBI problems were marginally associated with the children's self-evaluations. The parents showed important concerns regarding their child across all dimensions of life.

Conclusions: Children with TBI report significantly reduced QoL compared to a control group in the physical, psychological, cognitive and total score dimensions. However, TBI children with average academic performance (65%) obtained the same QoL scores as the control group.