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Abstract: Patients with physical traumatic injuries frequently require long-term rehabilitation services. To strengthen rehabilitation services in the postacute phase, we need to assess characteristics of this population and their healthcare and rehabilitation needs in the community. This brief report summarizes the frequency of unmet rehabilitation needs in community-based rehabilitation during the first year after moderate and severe trauma. Additionally, the associations between sociodemographic, injury severity factors and unmet needs were examined. Data from a prospective multicenter cohort study of patients with moderate and severe trauma (New Injury Severity Score > 9) of all ages, discharged alive from two regional trauma centers in 2020 were used. Needs were estimated using the Needs and Provision Complexity Scale. Overall, 46% of patients had unmet needs at 12-mo postinjury, particularly related to the provision of rehabilitation services, specialist follow-ups, and social and family support. The probability of unmet needs was associated with age, preinjury comorbidities, and impaired functioning. Our findings support strategies targeting younger patients, those with preinjury comorbidities, and those with higher levels of disability and provide a starting point for the development of standardized rehabilitation needs assessment and guidelines after injury., Competing Interests: Financial disclosure statements have been obtained, and no conflicts of interest have been reported by the authors or by any individuals in control of the content of this article., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Objective: To describe the incidence of self-reported COVID-19 history in a longitudinal cohort of individuals with complicated mild to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and describe demographic, injury and functional differences based on history of COVID-19 infection., Design: Individuals with complicated mild to severe TBI aged 16 or older at time of injury who were enrolled in the TBI Model Systems longitudinal cohort study, completed a baseline or follow-up interview between October 1, 2021-March 31, 2023, and provided information about COVID-19 history and timing of COVID-19 infection was collected., Results: Of the 3,627 individuals included in the analysis, 29.5% reported a history of COVID-19 infection. Those with reported COVID-19 history tended to be younger, not of a racial/ethnic minority background, and greater functional status at follow up based on the Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended scale compared to those with no reported COVID-19 history (p < 0.05). Among those with COVID-19 history, 61.8% did not receive medical care, 27.6% received medical care but no hospitalization, and 10.5% were hospitalized. Of those hospitalized, 21.4% required ventilator use., Conclusion: Incidence of COVID-19 diagnosis and related hospitalization characteristics in persons with complicated mild to severe TBI was similar to national incidence between March 2020-2023. Secondary effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on persons with TBI require investigation., (Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: This study examined demographic and injury-related predictors of cognitive and motor functional independence in Hispanics with traumatic brain injury at years 1, 2, 5, and 10 after hospital discharge., Design: Hispanic participants ( n = 1360) from the TBI Model Systems Study were included if they had at least one Functional Independence Measure (FIM) Cognitive and Motor score at any time point (years 1, 2, 5, or 10). Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine baseline predictors of FIM Cognitive and Motor trajectories across this period., Results: FIM Cognitive trajectories showed a quadratic movement (initial increase followed by a plateau or slight decrease), whereas FIM Motor trajectories showed a cubic movement (initial increase, followed by a plateau, then another increase). Higher FIM Cognitive trajectories were predicted by younger age, shorter length of posttraumatic amnesia, higher education, and having experienced a nonviolent mechanism of injury. Higher FIM Motor trajectories were predicted by younger age, shorter posttraumatic amnesia, and a nonviolent mechanism of injury., Conclusions: The baseline predictors of functional trajectories identified may help create tailored, evidence-based rehabilitation interventions along the continuum of recovery during the first 10 yrs for Hispanics with traumatic brain injury at risk for reduced functional outcomes., Competing Interests: Financial disclosure statements have been obtained, and no conflicts of interest have been reported by the authors or by any individuals in control of the content of this article., (Copyright © 2022 Written work prepared by employees of the Federal Government as part of their official duties is, under the U.S. Copyright Act, a “work of the United States Government” for which copyright protection under Title 17 of the United States Code is not available. As such, copyright does not extend to the contributions of employees of the Federal Government.)

Objective: The aim of the study was to predict suicidal ideation 1 yr after moderate to severe traumatic brain injury., Design: This study used a cross-sectional design with data collected through the prospective, longitudinal Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems network at hospitalization and 1 yr after injury. Participants who completed the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 suicide item at year 1 follow-up ( N = 4328) were included., Results: A gradient boosting machine algorithm demonstrated the best performance in predicting suicidal ideation 1 yr after traumatic brain injury. Predictors were Patient Health Questionnaire-9 items (except suicidality), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 items, and a measure of heavy drinking. Results of the 10-fold cross-validation gradient boosting machine analysis indicated excellent classification performance with an area under the curve of 0.882. Sensitivity was 0.85 and specificity was 0.77. Accuracy was 0.78 (95% confidence interval, 0.77-0.79). Feature importance analyses revealed that depressed mood and guilt were the most important predictors of suicidal ideation, followed by anhedonia, concentration difficulties, and psychomotor disturbance., Conclusions: Overall, depression symptoms were most predictive of suicidal ideation. Despite the limited clinical impact of the present findings, machine learning has potential to improve prediction of suicidal behavior, leveraging electronic health record data, to identify individuals at greatest risk, thereby facilitating intervention and optimization of long-term outcomes after traumatic brain injury., Competing Interests: Financial disclosure statements have been obtained, and no conflicts of interest have been reported by the authors or by any individuals in control of the content of this article., (Copyright © 2022 Written work prepared by employees of the Federal Government as part of their official duties is, under the U.S. Copyright Act, a “work of the United States Government” for which copyright protection under Title 17 of the United States Code is not available. As such, copyright does not extend to the contributions of employees of the Federal Government.)

Study Design: Pre-post study., Objective: To evaluate the efficiency of a series of recruitment strategies in a longitudinal study of individuals with SCI and their informal caregivers. Primary strategies included (a) rapport building in advance, (b) warm handoffs from another healthcare provider who already had a relationship with the potential participant, (c) ensuring the potential participant had information about the study prior to the initial contact by the research coordinator (RC), (d) attempting informed consent only when both the patient and informal caregiver were present, and (e) ensuring the RC had at least 30 minutes to explain the study when attempting recruitment., Summary of Background Data: While a fairly large body of research has been conducted on general recruitment strategies for clinical trials, very little has examined the efficacy of these strategies within neurological conditions and almost none within SCI., Methods: Individuals with an acute SCI and their informal caregivers were recruited from acute spinal cord rehabilitation units with a Veteran's Affairs medical center and an academic medical center in the same urban area. Of 49 eligible dyads, 41 were approached for consent, with 27 consenting to join the study (9 from the academic medical center; 18 from the VA)., Results: There was a significant difference in enrollment rates after implementing the recruitment strategies, χ2(1) = 7.572, P = 0.006, with the per month participant enrollment rate nearly doubling after implementation., Conclusion: Using a multiteam and multidisciplinary approach to recruitment may increase the likelihood that individuals with an acute SCI and their caregivers enroll in research.Level of Evidence: 3., (Copyright © 2021 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Traumatic brain injury represents a major public health concern, particularly in low- and middle-income countries like in Latin America. Family members are often caregivers for individuals with traumatic brain injury, which can result in significant stress. Research is needed to examine depression and quality of the caregiving relationship in these dyads. This study examined relationship quality and depression longitudinally after traumatic brain injury within the caregiving relationship., Design: Dyads (N = 109) composed of individuals with traumatic brain injury and their caregivers were recruited from three hospitals in Mexico and Colombia. They self-reported depression and relationship satisfaction during hospitalization and at 2 and 4 mos after hospitalization., Results: A 2-lag Actor Partner Interdependence Model demonstrated that patients and caregivers reporting high relationship satisfaction at baseline experienced lower depression 2 mos later, which then predicted higher caregiver relationship satisfaction at 4 mos. Moreover, patients with high relationship satisfaction at baseline had caregivers with lower depression at 2 mos, which was then associated with patients' higher satisfaction at 4 mos., Conclusions: Within individuals with traumatic brain injury and caregivers, depression and relationship satisfaction seem to be inversely related. Furthermore, patients' and caregivers' depression and relationship satisfaction impact each other over time, demonstrating interdependence within the caregiving relationship.

Objective: There are pronounced racial and socioeconomic disparities in type 2 diabetes. Although "stress" as a general phenomenon is hypothesized to contribute to these disparities, few studies have objective measures of stress reactivity in diverse samples to test hypotheses about purported mechanisms. This study describes the rationale and baseline characteristics of a cohort designed to address the question: how does stress contribute to disparities in diabetes risk?, Methods: The Richmond Stress and Sugar Study recruited 125 adults at elevated risk of type 2 diabetes using a two-by-two sampling frame wherein non-Hispanic whites and African Americans (AAs) were each recruited from neighborhoods of higher and lower socioeconomic status (SES). Stress reactivity was assessed using the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and salivary cortisol. Analyses of variance and multilevel modeling were used to examine how stress reactivity varied both within and across race and neighborhood SES., Results: The mean (SD) age was 57.4 (7.3) years, 49% were female, 54% were AA or another racial/ethnic minority, and mean hemoglobin A1c level was in the prediabetes range (5.8%; range, 5.50%-5.93%). Living in a lower-SES neighborhood was associated with 16% (95% confidence interval [CI] = -0.04 to 34) higher pre-TSST cortisol, 8.4% (95% CI = -14 to -3) shallower increase in response to the TSST, and 1% (95% CI = 0.3 to 1.7) steeper decline post-TSST than living in the higher neighborhood SES. Post-TSST cortisol decline was 3% greater among AA compared with non-Hispanic whites. Race-by-SES interaction terms were generally small and nonsignificant., Conclusions: SES is associated with stress reactivity among adults at high risk of diabetes.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine potential racial/ethnic disparities in community integration for the 2 yrs after burn injury., Design: A sample of 1773 adults with burn injury from the Burn Model Systems database was used with data on community integration collected at discharge (preinjury recall), 6, 12, and 24 mos after discharge., Methods: Four sets of hierarchal linear models determined the most appropriate model for understanding racial/ethnic differences in Community Integration Questionnaire trajectories over time., Results: Data indicated a decrease in community integration between discharge and 6 mos, a slight increase between 6 mos and 1 yr, and then a plateau between 1 and 2 yrs. White individuals had higher community integration score trajectories over time than black (b = 0.53, P < 0.001) and Hispanic (b = 0.58, P < 0.001) individuals, and community integration scores were similar between black and Hispanic individuals (b = -0.05, P = 0.788). These racial/ethnic disparities remained after accounting for age, sex, total burned surface area, number of days in rehabilitation, and active range of motion deficits., Conclusions: Additional rehabilitation resources should be targeted to helping black and Hispanic individuals integrate back into their communities after burn injury.

Objective: The research attempting to disentangle the directionality of relationships between mental health and functional outcomes after traumatic brain injury (TBI) is growing but has yielded equivocal findings or focused on isolated predictors or isolated outcomes. The purpose of the current study was to use cross-lagged panel and structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques to examine causality between comprehensive indices of mental health (depression, anxiety, and life satisfaction) and functional independence in a national sample of individuals with TBI over the first 2 years after injury., Design: Participants were 4,674 individuals with TBI from the TBI Model Systems Database., Results: The SEM, which yielded good fit indices, suggested that individuals with TBI with greater mental health problems at 1 and 2 years after injury had lower functional independence at those same time points. The standardized path loadings for mental health problems and for functional independence over time were large, suggesting a high degree of consistency in mental health and functional independence across 1 and 2 years. In terms of cross-lag, mental health at Time 1 did not exert a unique effect on functional independence at Time 2, but functional independence at Time 1 exerted a statistically significant but quite small unique effect on mental health at Time 2., Conclusions: This combination of results suggests that functional independence is only slightly more causal than mental health in the relationship between mental health and functional independence over the first 2 years post-TBI, and that instead, reciprocal causality is a more likely scenario., To Claim Cme Credits: Complete the self-assessment activity and evaluation online at http://www.physiatry.org/JournalCME CME OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of this article, the reader should be able to: (1) understand the nature of the relationship between mental health problems and functional independence after traumatic brain injury; (2) learn about a novel methodological technique for examining the connections between variables over time; and (3) understand when ongoing support for individuals with traumatic brain injury is necessary., Level: Advanced ACCREDITATION: The Association of Academic Physiatrists is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.The Association of Academic Physiatrists designates this activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Although considerable research has been carried out on family caregivers of individuals with various types of disabilities, spinal cord injury (SCI) caregivers have received considerably less attention in terms of research, especially in regions such as Latin America. This study examined the relationship between health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in individuals with SCI and their family caregiver's mental health in Neiva, Colombia. Thirty-four individuals with SCI and their primary caregivers (34 dyads; n=68) from the Foundation for the Integral Development of People with Disabilities in Neiva, Colombia, were included in this study. Individuals with SCI completed eight subscales of the SF-36 that assessed HRQOL. Five aspects of caregiver mental health were assessed, including burden (Zarit Burden Interview), satisfaction with life (Satisfaction with Life Scale), depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale), and anxiety (State Trait Anxiety Inventory). A series of multiple regressions uncovered strong associations among the HRQOL of individuals with SCI and various aspects of caregiver mental health. In these regressions, patient physical functioning and pain were independently related to caregiver burden; patient pain and general health were independently related to caregiver satisfaction with life; and patient pain was independently related to caregiver anxiety. HRQOL in individuals with SCI was robustly related to their caregiver's mental health, suggesting that the two sets of variables are closely linked. These findings suggest that caregiver mental health should be a central part of SCI rehabilitation interventions, especially in Latin America.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the influence of three types of social support (appraisal, belonging, and tangible) on caregiver mental health (anxiety, burden, depression, and satisfaction with life) among Mexican caregivers of individuals with traumatic brain injury., Design: This is a cross-sectional study of 90 family caregivers from Hospital Civil Fray Antonio Alcade in Guadalajara, Mexico., Results: More months spent caregiving was associated with decreases in all three types of social support. Older age and fewer years of education were associated with lower appraisal social support. More hours per week spent caregiving was associated with lower caregiver state anxiety and greater satisfaction with life. Appraisal, belonging, and tangible social support were all significantly correlated with more salubrious caregiver mental health outcomes, except satisfaction with life. Appraisal social support independently predicted lower caregiver depression., Conclusions: Particularly in Latin America, strong social support networks and family connections seem closely tied to key mental health outcomes such as depression. Rehabilitation interventions aimed at strengthening perceptions of social support of caregivers of individuals with traumatic brain injury that specifically target availability of advice may improve mental health and contribute to more optimal informal care for individuals with traumatic brain injury.