Affiliations: [a] Communication Sciences Program, Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
| [b] Brain Injury Association of Pennsylvania, Chambersburg, PA, USA
| [c] Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
| [d] Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA
| [e] Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: Angela Ciccia, Communication Sciences Program, Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA. E-mail: amh11@case.edu.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:Students with traumatic brain injury (TBI) often demonstrate difficulties that impact their successful return to school (RTS). OBJECTIVE:To explore injury severity, age at injury, and time since injury as predictors for performance on measures of cognitive, social and health functioning for students’ participating in a formal RTS cohort at the time of their enrollment in the School Transition After Traumatic Brain Injury (STATBI) research project. METHODS:Outcome measures across cognitive, social, and health domains were analyzed for association with the explanatory variables of interest using quantile regressions and ordinary least squares regression, as appropriate. RESULTS:Students (N = 91) injured after age 13 showed significantly lower cognitive outcomes than students whose injury occurred earlier. Additionally, students more than one-year post-injury demonstrated poorer social outcome on one measure compared to students whose injury occurred more recently. Health outcomes showed no significant association to any predictors. CONCLUSION:The results of this analysis provide a baseline for a group of students with TBI as they enter a RTS research study. This data can now be paired with longitudinal measures and qualitative data collected simultaneously to gain a deeper understanding of how students with TBI present for RTS.
