ABSTRACT
Objective
This study assessed the consequences of childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI) on sleep, fatigue, depression, and quality of life (QoL) outcomes and explored the relationships between these variables at 20 years following childhood TBI.
Participants
We followed up 54 young adults with mild, moderate, and severe TBI, and 13 typically developing control (TDC) participants, recruited at the time of TBI.
Methods
Sleep was assessed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and actigraphy.
Results
At 20 years postinjury, results showed no significant difference between whole TBI group and TDC participants on subjective sleep quality; however, the moderate TBI group reported significantly poorer subjective sleep quality compared to those with severe TBI. Poorer subjective sleep was associated with increased symptoms of fatigue, depression, and poorer perceptions of General Health in the TBI group. Actigraphic sleep efficiency, fatigue, depression, and QoL outcomes were not significantly different between TBI and TDC or among TBI severity groups.
Conclusions
These preliminary findings underscore associations between subjective sleep disturbance, fatigue, depression, and QoL in this TBI sample, and mostly comparable outcomes in sleep, fatigue, depression, and QoL between the TBI and TDC groups. Further research is required to clarify these findings.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Victorian Government’s Operational Infrastructure Support Program. We thank our collaborators from the Sleep Research Laboratory, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne (Victoria, Australia). We also appreciate all participating families for their dedication to this study, and generous participation in this follow-up.
Declaration of Interests
The authors report no conflicts of interest.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.