Am. Sander et al., Long-term maintenance of gains obtained in postacute rehabilitation by persons with traumatic brain injury, J HEAD TR R, 16(4), 2001, pp. 356-373
Objective: To investigate maintenance of gains after discharge from a posta
cute rehabilitation program. Design: Longitudinal cohort study, with inclus
ion based on availability of subjects at three time points. Setting: Compre
hensive postacute rehabilitation program in the Southern United States. Par
ticipants: Thirty-four persons with medically documented complicated mild t
o severe traumatic brain injury; primarily male Caucasians with some colleg
e. Main Outcome Measures: Disability Rating Scale and the Community Integra
tion Questionnaire completed at admission, discharge. and two follow-up tim
e points, Results: Repeated measures analyses, using time from injury to di
scharge as a covariate, revealed significant improvements on all measures f
rom admission to discharge, with no significant change from discharge to ei
ther of the follow-up periods. However, substantial changes were noted in i
ndividual cases. Conclusions: The results indicate that gains made by perso
ns with traumatic brain injury during postacute rehabilitation are generall
y maintained at long-term follow-up, but changes occur in individual cases.
Long-term services may help prevent decline in individual cases.