Early Cognitive Test Results Are Predictive of One-Year Productivity

Past Studies

Past Studies show that traumatic brain injuries can affect the way individuals think, act, and feel. Thinking skills and behavior problems can limit an individual’s productivity, including the ability to work or attend school. Researchers attempting to predict productivity outcomes with early neuropsychologic (thought and behavior processing) tests produced inconsistent results. Such predictions are complex because of the many variables that affect productivity outcomes, such as severity of injury, individual characteristics, and preinjury employment history.

This Study

This study included 388 adults with complicated mild, moderate, and severe traumatic brain injury. They were from six Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems inpatient rehabilitation programs. The researchers obtained the participants’ medical history and background information from the medical records. The participants were administered 16 neuropsychologic tests during their inpatient rehabilitation. The participants were interviewed and evaluated again at one year from their date of injury. Individuals were classified as productive if they were employed, a full or part time student, or a homemaker. The researchers statistically analyzed the results to determine if the early neuropsychologic test results were predictive of productivity outcomes.The researchers found that early neuropsychologic test results were predictive of productivity outcomes one year from the date of injury. At the one-year follow-up evaluation, 43% of the participants were classified as productive. Individuals with less cognitive impairment were 2.46times more likely to be productive when no other factors were considered. This was so even for the individuals that were not productive prior to their injury. When other factors were considered (injury severity, work history, age, etc.) individuals with less cognitive impairments were 1.61 times more likely to be productive.

Who May Be Affected By These Findings

Individuals with traumatic brain injury, rehabilitation personnel, researchers

Caveats

The generalizability of the results of this study may be questionable because of lack of data. A good number of test scores were not available on 152 potential participants. Forty-two percent of potential participants could not be contacted to obtain one-year post-injury productivity outcome data.

Bottom Line

The researchers found that early neuropsychologic test results are predictive of productivity outcomes one year from the time of injury.

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