Abstract

Aim: To study the impact of mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) on patients with
regards to the course of quality of life outcomes.
Materials and Methods: 100 patients aged 18-65 who fulfilled WHO criteria for mild
traumatic brain injury (non-surgically managed) were evaluated at 1, 3 and 6 months
post injury data was collected with the help of following questionnaire- The World
Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL)-BREF for evaluation of quality of life.
Percentage, Friedman Test, Repeated measures ANOVA tests were used. Statistical
analysis was carried out using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version
17.0 (IBM SPSS, US) software. Data are reported as means and standard deviations
unless not indicated otherwise. For the study of paired observations Wilcoxon` signedranks-
test was used.
Results: 100 patients who were followed up till six months post trauma. The average age
of the study population in our study was 38.5 years. Males were at a higher risk. The
male to female ratio was 1: 0.26. Road traffic accidents were the major cause of MTBI.
Alcohol consumption has been found to be a major risk factor for the occurrence of
TBI. None of the two-wheeler riders or pillion riders were wearing helmets at the time
of road traffic accident. In our study the data on QOL was assessed by World Health
Organization Quality of Life BREF (WHOQOL-BREF-Tamil). Our study revealed that
there was statistically significant progressive improvement in all the four domains of
quality of life at 1, 3- and 6-months post trauma. The quality of life in social relationship
and environmental areas reached a score of normal healthy population by 3 months.
The psychological domain became normal between 3 to 6 months post trauma. The
physical health of the study patients continued to improve beyond 6 months post
trauma.
Conclusions: Our study revealed that there was statistically significant progressive
improvement in all the four domains of quality of life at 1, 3- and 6-months post trauma