Health and Well-Being of Persons of Working Age up to Seven Years after Severe Traumatic Brain Injury in Northern Sweden: A Mixed Method Study

• Published in: Journal of Clinical Medicine
• Main Authors: Maud Stenberg, Britt-Marie Stålnacke, Britt-Inger Saveman
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2022
• Subjects: severe traumatic brain injury; well-being; health; long-term perspective; mixed method; Medicine; R; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11051306; https://doaj.org/article/0d0fcbe986ac4a20a99d5f0a677eceee

Purpose: To explore the health and well-being of persons seven years after severe traumatic brain injury (STBI). Material and methods: Follow-up of 21 persons 1 and 7 years after STBI using surveys for functional outcome, anxiety/depression, health and mental fatigue. Interviews were conducted and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Convergent parallel mixed method then merged and analysed the results into an overall interpretation. Results: Good recovery, high functional outcome and overall good health were relatively unchanged between 1 and 7 years. Well-being was a result of adaptation to a recovered or changed life situation. Persons with good recovery had moved on in life. Persons with moderate disability self-estimated their health as good recovery but reported poorer well-being. For persons with severe disability, adaptation was an ongoing process and health and well-being were low. Only a few persons reported anxiety and depression. They had poorer health but nevertheless reported well-being. Persons with moderate and severe mental fatigue had low functional outcomes and overall health and none of them reported well-being. Conclusions: The life of a person who has suffered STBI is still affected to a lesser or greater degree several years after injury due to acceptance of a recovered or changed life situation. Further studies are needed on how health and well-being can be improved after STBI in the long-term perspective.