Quality of life as perceived by the patients with TBI and their caregivers

Background: The QOLIBRI (Quality of Life after Brain Injury) is a new international health-related quality of life (HRQoL) instrument developed for assessing the consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI), recently validated also for the Italian version. Objective: The aim of the study is the comparison of the quality of life as perceived by the patients with TBI and their caregivers and the correlations with self-awareness of the patients and possible empathy deficits. Patients and methods: A total of 147 participants with TBI who had previously been discharged from the Santa Lucia Foundation rehabilita tion hospital were evaluated by means of QOLIBRI administered to patients and their caregivers (proxy version) to evaluate their quality of life and the Patient Competency Rating Scale (PCRS) to assess the levels of self-awareness and Empathy Quotient (EQ) for empathy disorders Results: The results suggest that QOLIBRI is very sensitive in relation to outcome as measured by the Extended Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS-E) and other instruments for functional assessment of disability, emotions and subjective health status, including the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Short-Form 36. Conclusions: The comparison between the self-perception of quality of life of the patients and their quality of life as perceived by the caregivers (Proxy QOLIBRI) may offer interesting opportunities to evaluate the self-awareness and empathy of patients with TBI