Reliability and validity data to support the clinical utility of the Traumatic Brain Injury Caregiver Quality of Life (TBI-CareQOL).

Abstract

The Traumatic Brain Injury Caregiver Quality of Life (TBI-CareQOL) is a patient-reported outcome measurement system that is specific to caregivers of civilians and service members/veterans (SMVs) with traumatic brain injury (TBI). This measurement system includes 26 item banks that represent both generic (i.e., borrowed from existing measurement systems) and caregiver-specific components of health-related quality of life (HRQOL). This report provides reliability and validity data for measures within the TBI-CareQOL that have not previously been reported (i.e., 4 caregiver-specific and 7 generic measures of HRQOL). Three hundred eighty-five caregivers of persons with TBI completed caregiver-specific computer adaptive tests (CATs) for Feelings of Loss-Self, Caregiver Strain, Caregiver-Specific Anxiety, and Feeling Trapped, as well as generic measures of HRQOL from complementary measurement systems (i.e., Neuro-QoL Positive Affect and Well-Being; PROMIS Sleep-Related Impairment; NIH Toolbox Perceived Stress, General Life Satisfaction, and Self Efficacy; TBI-QOL Resilience and Grief/Loss). Caregivers also completed several additional measures to establish convergent and discriminant validity, as well as the Mayo Portland Adaptability Index, 4th ed. Findings support the internal consistency reliability (all alphas > .85) and test-retest stability (all alphas >.73) of the TBI-CareQOL measures. Convergent validity was supported by moderate to high correlations between the TBI-CareQOL measures and related measures, whereas discriminant validity was supported by low correlations between the TBI-CareQOL measures and unrelated constructs. Known-groups validity was also supported. Findings support the reliability and validity of the item banks that comprise the TBI-CareQOL Measurement System. These measures should be considered for any standardized assessment of HRQOL in caregivers of civilians and SMVs with TBI. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).