The relationship between mental health and quality of life in children with traumatic brain injury three months after the injury

Abstract

To explore the relationship between mental health and quality of life (QoL) in children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) from Guadalajara, Mexico three months after the injury. Forty six children with mild to severe TBI from Guadalajara, Mexico completed measures of mental health (anxiety and depression) and QoL 3 months after TBI. Anxiety and depressive symptoms were measured with the Anxiety Scale for Children Revised (CMAS-R) and Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). QoL was measured using the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL), which is composed by four subscales: physical, emotional, social and school functioning. For this analysis emotional functioning subscale was remove to avoid conflicts with mental health scales. The majority of the sample was men (67%) and the average age was 10.48 (SD = 2.7). Results: A canonical correlation analysis between the mental health variables and QoL variables revealed that the two sets of constructs were significantly related, r = .50 (24.8% overlapping variance), λ = .62, χ 2 (6) = 19.81, P < .005. The standardized canonical coefficients for the mental health variables showed that anxiety loaded most highly (−.687) followed by depression (−.499). The standardized canonical coefficients for the QoL variables showed that social functioning (.774) loaded above the cutoff of .40. This pattern of shared variance suggests that children with TBI who had high anxiety and depression also tended to have lower social QoL. Intervention programs for children with TBI in Mexico should include techniques to reduce anxiety and depression symptoms which could improve children’ social quality of life.