Janell Kwok
National Neuroscience Institute, Singapore
Title: Profiling recovery attitudes of ABI patients through a learned insight questionnaire
Biography
Biography: Janell Kwok
Abstract
Introduction
Acute brain injury (ABI) patients have to learn new adaptation skills during recovery. Literature on stroke survivors differ in effectiveness of interventions as they are not comprehensive enough to address this complex neurological condition (Cheng, Chair, Chau, 2014). However, recovery can potentially promote development of insight skills to effectively cope with post-injury deficits. We developed a learned insight questionnaire (LIQ) to understand post-ABI patients through characterisation of attitudinal and adaptation trends in recovery.
Methodology
We administered the LIQ, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) to 15 post-ABI patients in a pilot study. Patients were high-functioning, attending an enhanced clinic, and were previously diagnosed with spontaneous brain haemorrhage between 2014-2017. The average age was 53.8 years old (10 females and 5 males). Reliability analysis showed α=.814 for 44 items on the LIQ. We ran a principal component analysis and coefficient values of 0.6 were suppressed. 11 components were extracted, accounting for 95.54% of the dataset.
Findings
Extracted LIQ components illustrated several latent variables in this cohort: new possibilities, internal locus of control, anxiety regulation, social emphasis, positive outlook towards faith, increased optimism, flexibility in changing perspective, ambiguity tolerance and willingness for disclosure. Specific items also significantly correlated with HADS and PTGI factors.
Results and Conclusion
Results show three specific characteristics of this patient cohort: proactive self-management (new possibilities and perspective change); dependence on social community, and faith. Increased quality of life studies show presence of similar factors which support these results, such as development of coping strategies (Mierlo et al.,2017; Tielemans et al., 2015; Visser, Aben, Heijenbrok-Kal, Busschbach, Ribbers, 2014), increased social engagement and decreased depressive symptoms (Tse et al., 2017; Visser et al., 2015). Further research is required to test different ABI cohorts and validate the learned insight questionnaire.
References
1. Cheng, H. Y., Chair, S. Y., & Chau, J. P.-C. (2014). The effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for stroke family caregivers and stroke survivors: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Patient Education and Counseling, 95(1), 30–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2014.01.005
2. Mierlo, M., van Heugten, C., Post, M. W. M., Hoekstra, T., & Visser-Meily, A. (2017). Trajectories of health-related quality of life after stroke: results from a one-year prospective cohort study. Disability and Rehabilitation, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2017.1292320
3. Tielemans, N. S., Schepers, V. P., Visser-Meily, J. M., Post, M. W., & Van Heugten, C. M. (2015). Associations of proactive coping and self-efficacy with psychosocial outcomes in individuals after stroke. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 96(8), 1484–1491. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2015.04.009
4. Tse, T., Yusoff, S. Z. B., Churilov, L., Ma, H., Davis, S., Donnan, G. A., & Carey, L. M. (2017). Increased work and social engagement is associated with increased stroke specific quality of life in stroke survivors at 3 months and 12 months post-stroke: A longitudinal study of an Australian stroke cohort. Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation, 24(6), 405–414. https://doi.org/10.1080/10749357.2017.1318339
5. Visser, M. M., Heijenbrok-Kal, M. H., Spijker, A. V., Oostra, K. M., Busschbach, J. J., & Ribbers, G. M. (2015). Coping, problem solving, depression, and health-related quality of life in patients receiving outpatient stroke rehabilitation. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 96(8), 1492–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2015.04.007