TY - JOUR
T1 - Residual impairments and work status 15 years after penetrating head injury
T2 - Report from the Vietnam head injury study
AU - Schwab, Karen
AU - Grafman, Jordan
AU - Salazar, Andres M.
AU - Kraft, Joan
PY - 1993
Y1 - 1993
N2 - We investigated the relationship of neurologic, neuropsychological, and social interaction impairments to the work status of a large sample of penetrating head-injured patients wounded some 15 years earlier during combat in Vietnam. Extensive standardized testing of neurologic, neuropsychological, and social functioning was done at follow-up on each head-injured patient (N = 520), as well as on a sample of uninjured controls (N = 85). Fifty-six percent of the head-injured patients were working at follow-up compared with 82% of the uninjured controls. Seven systematically defined impairments proved to be most correlated with work status. These were post-traumatic epilepsy, paresis, visual field loss, verbal memory loss, visual memory loss, psychological problems, and violent behavior. These disabilities had a cumulative and nearly equipotent effect upon the likelihood of work. We suggest that a simple summed score of the number of these seven disabilities can yield a residual 'disability score' which may prove to be a practical tool for assessing the likelihood of return to work for patients in this population and perhaps in other brain-injured populations. These findings may also help to focus rehabilitation efforts on those disabilities most likely to affect return to work.
AB - We investigated the relationship of neurologic, neuropsychological, and social interaction impairments to the work status of a large sample of penetrating head-injured patients wounded some 15 years earlier during combat in Vietnam. Extensive standardized testing of neurologic, neuropsychological, and social functioning was done at follow-up on each head-injured patient (N = 520), as well as on a sample of uninjured controls (N = 85). Fifty-six percent of the head-injured patients were working at follow-up compared with 82% of the uninjured controls. Seven systematically defined impairments proved to be most correlated with work status. These were post-traumatic epilepsy, paresis, visual field loss, verbal memory loss, visual memory loss, psychological problems, and violent behavior. These disabilities had a cumulative and nearly equipotent effect upon the likelihood of work. We suggest that a simple summed score of the number of these seven disabilities can yield a residual 'disability score' which may prove to be a practical tool for assessing the likelihood of return to work for patients in this population and perhaps in other brain-injured populations. These findings may also help to focus rehabilitation efforts on those disabilities most likely to affect return to work.
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U2 - 10.1212/wnl.43.1_part_1.95
DO - 10.1212/wnl.43.1_part_1.95
M3 - Article
C2 - 8423917
AN - SCOPUS:0027389979
VL - 43
SP - 95
EP - 103
JO - Neurology
JF - Neurology
SN - 0028-3878
IS - 1
ER -