Quality of Life after Brain Injury (QOLIBRI): Scale Validity and Correlates of Quality of Life

TLDR

The QOLIBRI is a novel health‑related quality‑of‑life instrument specifically developed for traumatic brain injury. The study investigated the validity of the QOLIBRI and factors associated with HRQoL in a multi‑center international cohort. The study assessed 795 adults with brain injury, 3 months to 15 years post‑injury, using the QOLIBRI’s six‑domain profile and overall score. The study found that 58 % of participants had severe injuries, QOLIBRI scores correlated strongly with GOSE, HADS, and SF‑36, disability was associated with markedly lower HRQoL, and emotional state, functional status, and comorbid conditions explained 58 % of score variance, establishing QOLIBRI as the first disease‑specific HRQoL tool for brain injury.

Abstract

The QOLIBRI (Quality of Life after Brain Injury) is a novel health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) instrument specifically developed for traumatic brain injury (TBI). It provides a profile of HRQoL in six domains together with an overall score. Scale validity and factors associated with HRQoL were investigated in a multi-center international study. A total of 795 adults with brain injury were studied from 3 months to 15 years post-injury. The majority of participants (58%) had severe injuries as assessed by 24-h worst Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score. Systematic relationships were observed between the QOLIBRI and the Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOSE), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and SF-36. Within each scale patients with disability reported having low HRQoL in two to three times as many areas as those who had made a good recovery. The main correlates of the total QOLIBRI score were emotional state (HADS depression and anxiety), functional status (amount of help needed and outcome on the GOSE), and comorbid health conditions. Together these five variables accounted for 58% of the variance in total QOLIBRI scores. The QOLIBRI is the first tool developed to assess disease-specific HRQoL in brain injury, and it contains novel information not given by other currently available assessments.