Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Feb 27;11(5):1306.
doi: 10.3390/jcm11051306.

Health and Well-Being of Persons of Working Age up to Seven Years after Severe Traumatic Brain Injury in Northern Sweden: A Mixed Method Study

Maud Stenberg  1 , Britt-Marie Stålnacke  1 , Britt-Inger Saveman  2   3
Affiliations

Health and Well-Being of Persons of Working Age up to Seven Years after Severe Traumatic Brain Injury in Northern Sweden: A Mixed Method Study

Maud Stenberg et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the health and well-being of persons seven years after severe traumatic brain injury (STBI).

Material and methods: Follow-up of 21 persons 1 and 7 years after STBI using surveys for functional outcome, anxiety/depression, health and mental fatigue. Interviews were conducted and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Convergent parallel mixed method then merged and analysed the results into an overall interpretation.

Results: Good recovery, high functional outcome and overall good health were relatively unchanged between 1 and 7 years. Well-being was a result of adaptation to a recovered or changed life situation. Persons with good recovery had moved on in life. Persons with moderate disability self-estimated their health as good recovery but reported poorer well-being. For persons with severe disability, adaptation was an ongoing process and health and well-being were low. Only a few persons reported anxiety and depression. They had poorer health but nevertheless reported well-being. Persons with moderate and severe mental fatigue had low functional outcomes and overall health and none of them reported well-being.

Conclusions: The life of a person who has suffered STBI is still affected to a lesser or greater degree several years after injury due to acceptance of a recovered or changed life situation. Further studies are needed on how health and well-being can be improved after STBI in the long-term perspective.

Keywords: health; long-term perspective; mixed method; severe traumatic brain injury; well-being.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Injury severity on GCS at time of admission and EQ-VAS (overall health) at 7-year follow-up.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Tagliaferri F., Compagnone C., Korsic M., Servadei F., Kraus J. A systematic review of brain injury epidemiology in Europe. Acta Neurochir. 2005;148:255–268. doi: 10.1007/s00701-005-0651-y. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Langois J.A., Rutland-Brown W., Wald M.M. The epidemiology and impact of traumatic brain injury: A brief overview. J. Head Trauma Rehabil. 2006;21:375–378. doi: 10.1097/00001199-200609000-00001. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Montemurro N., Santoro G., Marani W., Petrella G. Posttraumatic synchronous double acute epidural hematomas: Two craniotomies, single skin incision. Surg. Neurol. Int. 2020;11:435. doi: 10.25259/SNI_697_2020. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ratilal B., Castanho P., Luiz C.V., Antunes J.O. Traumatic clivus epidural hematoma: Case report and review of the literature. Surg. Neurol. 2006;66:200–202. doi: 10.1016/j.surneu.2005.11.030. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Teasdale G., Jennet B. Assessment of coma and impaired consciousness. A practical scale. Lancet. 1974;2:81–84. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(74)91639-0. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources