Effect of financial deprivation on the quality of life of patients with traumatic brain injury

BACKGROUND: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a global public health problem and one of the leading causes of mortality and disability. The prevalence and increase in the number of cases of TBI, high percentage of complications, disability, uncertain medical and social prognosis determine the relevance of studying this medical and social problem, the most significant in which are the consequences of craniocerebral trauma, often acquiring a chronic course, affecting the quality of life of the patient and his family.

AIM: To study the influence of financial deprivation on the quality of life of patients with post-TBI.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study of quality of life in patients with a post-TBI event was conducted using the WHOQOL-100 questionnaire. The study randomly sampled 414 respondents of working age (93.6% men). 54% of the respondents had suffered TBI within 1 to 5 years. The control group included clinically healthy subjects. The Dembo–Rubinstein test was used to diagnose the adequacy of respondents’ self-assessment with TBI. In the study of the impact of financial deprivation on the quality of life of the respondents, 4 degrees of deprivation correlated with the level of income per patient’s family member were considered.

RESULTS: The study of the impact of financial deprivation on the quality of life of patients with TBI identified 4 deprivation groups of respondents. The study obtained evidence of the effect of deprivation on the quality of life of respondents with TBI. The indicators of quality of life of patients included in the study significantly increase when moving from the group with degree 4 of deprivation to the group with degree 1 of deprivation. The greatest decrease in quality of life indicators was observed in respondents with degrees 2–4 of deprivation.

CONCLUSION: A multicomponent assessment of the results of TBI takes into account quality of life, a somatic and socially determined criterion of a patient’s social functioning that has prognostic value. The definition and typology of predictors of quality of life will allow the development of prognostic models of quality of life after TBI of different severity.