gms | German Medical Science

128. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Chirurgie

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie

03.05. - 06.05.2011, München

How to assess quality of life after traumatic brain injury (TBI)? Results on the clinical use of the QOLIBRI, a novel disease-specific instrument

Meeting Abstract

  • Klaus R.H. von Wild - Med. Fakultät Universität Münster, kvw neuroscience consulting gmbh, Münster Westfalen
  • Jean-Luc Truelle - University Hospital, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Garches
  • Nicole von Steinbüchel - University Medical Center Göttingen, Department Psychology and Medical Sociology, Göttingen

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie. 128. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Chirurgie. München, 03.-06.05.2011. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2011. Doc11dgch406

doi: 10.3205/11dgch406, urn:nbn:de:0183-11dgch4065

Published: May 20, 2011

© 2011 von Wild et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

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Introduction: To demonstrate the clinical use of the QOLIBRI, a disease-specific measure of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) after traumatic brain injury (TBI). QOLIBRI is the acronym for quality of life after traumatic brain injury.

Materials and methods: The QOLIBRI assessment tool consists of 37 items in six specific scales, divided into two parts .First part(items) with 4 subscales for the satisfaction level of cognition (7), self (7), daily life (7) ,social relationship (6) Second par with : two subscales for bothered questions of emotions (5) and physical problems(5). QOLIBRI was completed by 795 patients (585 after severe TBI) in six validated languages (English, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, and Italian). QOLIBRI scores were examined by variables likely to be influenced by rehabilitation interventions and included socio-demographic variables, functional outcome, health status and mental health.

Results: The QOLIBRI was self-completed by 83% within 15–20 min. It was sensitive to areas of life amenable to intervention, such as accommodation, work participation, health status (including mental health), and functional outcome. The scales with the highest scores were emotions, physical problems, and daily life and autonomy while lower levels for life satisfaction were assessed for social relationship, cognition and self-perception scales (all statistically significantly different, paired t-test values -2.10 to 43.39, p<0.04 for all tests).

Conclusion: The QOLIBRI provides information about patient’s subjective perception of his/her HRQoL which supplements clinical measures and measures of functional outcome. It can be applied across different populations and cultures. It allows the identification of personal needs, the prioritization of therapeutic goals, and the evaluation of individual progress. It may also be useful in clinical trials and in longitudinal studies of TBI recovery.