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Quality of life after brain injury (QOLIBRI): Italian validation of the proxy version

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Abstract

To validate the proxy version of the Quality of Life after Brain Injury (QOLIBRI) questionnaire to utilize caregivers for comparison and to evaluate the correspondence between patients’ self-perceived and caregivers’ perception of patients’ Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL). Ninety-two patients with severe TBI and their main caregivers were enrolled. Patients’ and caregivers’ HRQoL was assessed by the Patient-QOLIBRI (Pt-QOLIBRI) and the Proxy-QOLIBRI (Pro-QOLIBRI), respectively. The Pro-QOLIBRI is a modified version of the QOLIBRI to investigate caregivers’ perception of patients’ HRQoL (Pro-QOLIBRIpatient-centered), and their degree of satisfaction and botheredness (Pro-QOLIBRIcaregiver centered). The patients’ disability and their social reintegration was investigated by means of Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended and Community Integration Questionnaire. Pro-QOLIBRI has good internal consistency and homogeneity. There was also positive correlation between the level of satisfaction measured by Pro-QOLIBRI but not by Pt-QOLIBRI, and the disability severity and social integration of the patients. The comparison between the Pt-QOLIBRI and Pro-QOLIBRI confirmed the usefulness of the Pro-QOLIBRI, especially the caregiver-centered version, to predict the social reintegration of survivors. To our knowledge this is the first study that correlates the HRQoL of survivors, as self-perceived and as perceived by the caregivers with social reintegration.

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Correspondence to Rita Formisano.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Formisano, R., Silvestro, D., Azicnuda, E. et al. Quality of life after brain injury (QOLIBRI): Italian validation of the proxy version. Intern Emerg Med 12, 187–198 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11739-016-1536-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11739-016-1536-1

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