Original articleInfluence of Sex and Age on Inpatient Rehabilitation Outcomes Among Older Adults With Traumatic Brain Injury
Section snippets
Data Source
Data were obtained from the Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation.20 Admission and discharge information were collected from patient medical records contained within the inpatient rehabilitation facility–patient assessment instrument.21
Study Sample
The inclusion criteria for this study included patients who were (1) being admitted for initial inpatient rehabilitation services after TBI, (2) age 65 years or older at the time of admission, (3) living at home prior to injury, and (4) discharged from
Sample Characteristics
Women represented 47% of the 18,413 older adults (mean age ± SD, 79±7y) in our sample who received inpatient rehabilitation after TBI from 2005 through 2007. The sample was predominantly white, slightly more than half were married, and approximately one third was living alone at the time of the injury. More than 97% of patients experienced closed head injuries, and the mean rehabilitation admission delay was 13 days. On average, patients had 8 comorbid conditions and admission FIM total scores
Discussion
Few studies have examined older adults with TBI exclusively,19 and relatively little is known regarding the differences within and between groups of older women and men.24 This study provides a broad snapshot of admission characteristics and outcomes for adults age 65 years and older admitted to inpatient rehabilitation after TBI, and it highlights the influence of sex and age on rehabilitation outcomes. We hypothesized that women would generally fare better than men and that the sex advantage
Conclusions
We identified certain differences in inpatient rehabilitation outcomes between older women and men with TBI. Age was significantly related to 4 of the 5 outcomes included in this study. Home discharge was the only outcome not significantly associated with age. The sex-by-age interaction term did not reach significance in any models, suggesting that the main effects for sex are consistent across the entire age range of older adults in our sample. Multivariable analyses showed that motor and
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Cited by (0)
Supported in part by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (grant no. H133G080163) and the National Institutes of Health, National Institute for Child Health and Human Development and National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (grant no. K12-H0055929).
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit on the authors or on any organization with which the authors are associated. Granger is employed by the State University of New York at Buffalo, which is affiliated with the Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation. The Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation owns the copyright and trademark for the FIM instrument.
Reprints are not available from the author.