Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention on Reducing Misconceptions Among Ethnic Minorities With Complicated Mild to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

• Published in: Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation Vol. 98; no. 4; pp. 751 - 758
• Main Authors: Pappadis, Monique R., PhD, Sander, Angelle M., PhD, Łukaszewska, Beata, PhD, Struchen, Margaret A., PhD, Leung, Patrick, PhD, Smith, Dennis W., PhD
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.04.2017
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Brain injuries, traumatic; Brain Injuries, Traumatic - ethnology; Brain Injuries, Traumatic - rehabilitation; Education; Ethnic groups; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Hispanic Americans - education; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Minority groups; Patient Education as Topic; Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; Rehabilitation; Surveys and Questionnaires; Brain injuries, traumatic; traumatic brain injury; Minority groups; analysis of variance; Education; ANOVA; Glasgow Coma Scale; GCS; Ethnic groups; TBI; Rehabilitation; Common Misconceptions about Traumatic Brain Injury Questionnaire; CM-TBI
• ISSN: 0003-9993; 1532-821X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apmr.2016.11.016

Abstract Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of an educational intervention designed to reduce traumatic brain injury (TBI)–related misconceptions among blacks and Latinos with complicated mild to severe TBI. Design Randomized controlled trial with masked 1-month follow-up. Setting Community. Participants Persons (N=52) with complicated mild to severe TBI (mean best day 1 Glasgow Coma Scale score, 11.27±3.89) were randomly recruited from 141 eligible participants (mean age, 37.71±13.88y; age range, 19–66y; mean months postinjury, 24.69±11.50); 25 participants (48.1%) of participants were black and 27 (51.9%) were Hispanic/Latino. Of the Hispanic/Latino participants, 18 (66.7%) were non-U.S. born and 12 (44.4%) spoke Spanish as their primary language. Twenty-seven individuals were randomized to the educational intervention group and 25 were randomized to the wait-list control group. Interventions Single-session educational intervention with written materials provided in English or Spanish. Main Outcome Measures Forty-item Common Misconceptions about Traumatic Brain Injury Questionnaire administered at baseline and 1-month follow-up. Results After controlling for ethnic and language differences, a significant between-group main effect ( P =.010) and a significant time-group interaction for the Common Misconceptions about Traumatic Brain Injury Questionnaire were noted (Wilks Λ =.89; F1,46 =6.00; P =.02). The intervention group showed a decrease in TBI misconception percentages, whereas the wait-list control group maintained similar percentages. At 1-month follow-up, the wait-list control group reported more misconceptions than did the intervention group ( P =.019). Conclusions An educational intervention developed to address the recovery process, common symptoms, and ways to handle the symptoms provides promise as a tool to decrease TBI misconceptions among persons from ethnically and educationally diverse backgrounds. The effects of therapist characteristics and the client-therapist relation on outcomes should be further explored.