Impact of COVID-19 on Individuals with TBI: Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

3:48 PM – 3:53 PM

Location: Station 2

Presenting Author(s)

Anell Ovalles, MPH (she/her/hers)

Project Manager
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
New York, New York, United States

Non-presenting Author(s)

AB

Ashlyn Bulas, MPH

Data Manager
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, United States
Kristen Dams-O'Connor, PhD

Jack Nash Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance
Icahn School Of Medicine At Mount Sinai
New York, New York, United States

Research Objectives: To investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health and life quality of individuals living with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the United States.

Design: Cross-Sectional

Setting: General community

Participants: 1,440 adults with mild (49%), moderate (22%), and severe (29%) TBI. 3,857 adults from general population.

Interventions: N/A

Main Outcome Measures: Self-report measures of extent to which pandemic/stay-at-home orders have impacted mental health, isolation, financial stress, and access to medical care; brief assessment of vaccine hesitancy. Self-report psychometric measures of depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), comorbid disease burden, substance use, and domestic violence victimization.

Results: In this diverse nationwide sample, 55% of individuals with TBI lost wages due to the COVID-19 pandemic; only 16% felt they were able to pay for basic needs (food, shelter, heat). Those with TBI reported substantially elevated worry and isolation; 29% reported their cognitive function and 36% felt their mood (36%) had changed due to social-distancing and/or shelter-in-place orders. The majority met criteria for clinically significant depression (78%) and/or anxiety (76%). Only 11% reported increased alcohol use, and 24% reduced use; however, 24% reported high-risk prescription pain medication use. Recent physical and verbal violence was common: only 30% indicating that others “never” physically hurt them, and only 42% said they were “never” verbally abused. Control comparison data suggest disproportionate burden among those with TBI.

Conclusions: Individuals with TBI are at unique risk for financial loss, unmet care needs, medication misuse, and domestic violence during the ongoing pandemic. The extent to which observed disparities among those with TBI are limited to the early stages of the pandemic (i.e., 2020-2021) warrants further investigation; regardless, immediate remediation is required

Author(s) Disclosures: None

Learning Objectives:

Evaluate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic exposure on the health and life quality of individuals living with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in comparison with the general population.
List factors associated with greater COVID impact in individuals living with TBI.
Demonstrate the disproportionate effect the COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home order had on individuals with TBI, compared to the general population.