Cognitive, social, and health functioning of children with TBI engaged in a formal support program.

Abstract

Students with traumatic brain injury (TBI) often demonstrate difficulties that impact their successful return to school (RTS). To explore injury severity, age at injury, and time since injury as predictors for performance on measures of cognitive, social and health functioning for students' participating in a formal RTS cohort at the time of their enrollment in the School Transition After Traumatic Brain Injury (STATBI) research project. Outcome measures across cognitive, social, and health domains were analyzed for association with the explanatory variables of interest using quantile regressions and ordinary least squares regression, as appropriate. Students (N = 91) injured after age 13 showed significantly lower cognitive outcomes than students whose injury occurred earlier. Additionally, students more than one-year post-injury demonstrated poorer social outcome on one measure compared to students whose injury occurred more recently. Health outcomes showed no significant association to any predictors. The results of this analysis provide a baseline for a group of students with TBI as they enter a RTS research study. This data can now be paired with longitudinal measures and qualitative data collected simultaneously to gain a deeper understanding of how students with TBI present for RTS.