Psychosocial, emotional, and physical problems can emerge after traumatic brain injury (TBI), potentially impacting health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Until now, however, neither the discriminatory power of disease-specific (QOLIBRI) and generic (SF-36) HRQoL nor their correlates have been compared in detail. These aspects as well as some psychometric item characteristics were studied in a sample of 795 TBI survivors. The Shannon H ' index absolute informativity, as an indicator of an instrument's power to differentiate between individuals within a specific group or health state, was investigated. Psychometric performance of the two instruments was predominantly good, generally higher, and more homogenous for the QOLIBRI than for the SF-36 subscales. Notably, the SF-36 "Role Physical," "Role Emotional," and "Social Functioning" subscales showed less satisfactory discriminatory power than all other dimensions or the sum scores of both instruments. The absolute informativity of disease-specific as well as generic HRQoL instruments concerning the different groups defined by different correlates differed significantly. When the focus is on how a certain subscale or sum score differentiates between individuals in one specific dimension/health state, the QOLIBRI can be recommended as the preferable instrument.

doi.org/10.1155/2016/7928014, hdl.handle.net/1765/86133
Behavioural Neurology
Erasmus MC: University Medical Center Rotterdam

Von Steinbuechel, N., Covic, A., Polinder, S., Kohlmann, T., Cepulyte, U., Poinstingl, H., … Truelle, J.-L. (2016). Assessment of Health-Related Quality of Life after TBI: Comparison of a Disease-Specific (QOLIBRI) with a Generic (SF-36) Instrument. Behavioural Neurology, 2016. doi:10.1155/2016/7928014