Primary objective: To investigate the relationship of family functioning to patients' progress in a post-acute TBI rehabilitation programme.
Research design: Cohort study investigating predictors of change from admission to follow-up.
Methods and procedures: Caregivers of 37 persons with severe TBI consecutively admitted to a residential post-acute rehabilitation facility completed the Family Assessment Device (FAD) within a few weeks of admission. The Disability Rating Scale (DRS) was completed upon admission and approximately 1 month after discharge. FAD scores were used to predict DRS change scores after controlling for injury severity, admit FAD scores, and time from admission to follow-up.
Main outcomes and results: Persons with unhealthy family functioning showed less improvement on DRS total, level of functioning (LOF), and employability (EMP) scores.
Conclusions: The results emphasize that family functioning is an important variable to include in future models predicting rehabilitation outcome, and the importance of family intervention as part of the rehabilitation process.