Comparison of the Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory and the Rivermead Postconcussion Symptoms Questionnaire

ABSTRACT

Objective: This study sought to determine the similarity of constructs measured by the Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI) and Rivermead Postconcussive Symptoms Questionnaire (RPQ) and the potential for interchangeability of scores from the two scales.

Setting: Three acute inpatient rehabilitation hospitals in the USA.

Participants: 497 community dwelling persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI) who completed the NSI and the RPQ during the same assessment. Inclusion criteria were (a) medical documentation of TBI, (b) age 18 to 64 years, (c) capacity to give informed consent, (d) resides in the community, (e) ability to complete all study measures in English, (f) absence of interfering medical or psychiatric condition.

Design: Prospective cohort observational study

Main Measures: NSI; RPQ

Results: Scores from the NSI and RPQ showed a strong association (Spearman’s r = 0.89). Exploratory factor analysis showed that items from the two measures loaded on similar factors. A crosswalk between the two measures was created by equating scores from the scales based on percentile ranks.

Conclusion: Results indicate substantial conceptual and empirical overlap between the NSI and RPQ. The percentile crosswalk developed from this dataset may allow combined analysis of post-concussive symptoms from datasets that include either the NSI or the RPQ.

KEYWORDS:

• Traumatic brain injury
• post-concussive
• Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory
• Rivermead Postconcussion Questionnaire

Declaration of Interest

This study was not directly funded; however, data collection was funded as part of a prior study by the US Department of Education National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research grant H133B090023 and H133120020. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Administration for Community Living National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) 90RT5007, 90DP0028, and 90DP0084.