Participation after traumatic brain injury: the surplus value of social cognition tests beyond measures for executive functioning and dysexecutive behavior in a statistical prediction model

Figures & data

Table 1. Means, standard deviations and independent samples T- tests, for the patient group with TBI and healthy controls on tests for EF and SC, and behavioral ratings.

	Patient group	Control group
Measure	M (SD)	M (SD)	T/Z	p (two-tailed)
SC
FEEST^a	44.0 (7.3)	47.9 (4.9)	−4.28	<.001
Cartoons Test ^a	18.0 (6.6)	23.1 (6.4)	−5.69	<.001
Faux Pas Test ^a	8.8 (1.3)	9.3 (0.9)	−2.27	.025
EF
Zoomap Test^b	11.4 (4.4)	13.2 (3.2)	2.11	.035
Letter fluency^b	32.1 (10.8)	41.7 (11.9)	−4.38	< .001
TMT-B^b	77.2 (27.8)	55.7 (17.1)	−4.28	< .001
Dysexecutive behavior
DEX-proxy ^b	33.3 (10.4)	16.01 (10.7)	9.51	< .001

Note. FEEST: Facial Expressions of Emotion Stimuli and Tests. DEX-proxy: Dysexecutive Questionnaire- proxy ratings. TMT-B: Trailmaking Test- part B. ^a patient group n = 63; healthy controls n = 72, ^b patient group n = 63; healthy controls n = 45.

Table 2. Spearman correlations between injury severity, age, SC, behavior, EF and both participation measures.

	RRL-RTW	RRL-SR
Injury Severity	0.31*	0.29*
Age	0.14	−0.06
FEEST	−0.29*	−0.07
SC-ToM	−0.41**	−0.44**
DEX-proxy	0.26*	0.31*
EF-switching	−0.13	−0.19
EF-planning	0.07	−0.07

Note. FEEST: Facial Expressions of Emotion Stimuli and Tests. SC-ToM; Theory of Mind (Cartoons Test and Faux Pas test), DEX-proxy: Dysexecutive questionnaire – proxy rated. EF-switching: Executive functioning-Switching (TMT-B and Letterfluency), EF-planning: Executive functioning – planning (Zoomap Test), RRL-RTW: Role Resumption List – subscale Return To Work (Rs), RRL-SR: Role Resumption List – subscale Social Relations (Rs). * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.

Table 3. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis on vocational participation (RRL-RTW), by injury severity, age, EF, behavior and SC.

	Model 1			Model 2			Model 3			Model 4
Blocks of predictors	B	β	p<	B	β	p	B	β	P	B	β	p<
1st block:
Injury severity	1.03	0.34	0.006	1.04	0.34	0.007	0.99	0.33	0.006	0.73	0.24	0.029
Age	0.02	0.18	0.140	0.02	0.18	0.163	0.04	0.32	0.018	0.04	0.35	0.004
2nd block: EF
EF-planning^a				0.18	0.13	0.303	0.19	0.14	0.244	0.31	0.23	0.038
EF-switching^b				−0.08	−0.09	0.496	−0.03	−0.04	0.774	0.22	0.24	0.059
3rd block:
DEX-proxy							0.66	0.34	0.009	0.65	0.33	0.003
4th block:
FEEST										−0.21	−0.17	0.140
SC-ToM ^c										−0.42	−0.47	0.001
∆R2 (R2 change)	13.4%, p < 0.05			15% (2%), p < 0.05			25% (10%), p < 0.01			46% (21%), p < 0.001

Note. ^a Zoomap Test, ^b composite score TMT-B and Letterfluency, FEEST: Facial Expressions of Emotion Stimuli and Tests, ^c SC-ToM: Theory of Mind (composite score Happé Cartoons and Faux Pas test), DEX-proxy: Dysexecutive questionnaire – proxy rated.

Table 4. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis on social participation (RRL-SR), by injury severity, age, EF, behavior and SC.

	Model 5			Model 6			Model 7			Model 8
Blocks of predictors	B	Β	p<	B	β	p<	B	β	P	B	β	p<
1st block:
Injury severity	0.38	0.29	0.023	0.38	0.29	0.024	0.36	0.27	0.026	0.22	0.17	0.174
Age	−0.01	−0.32	0.797	−0.01	−0.10	0.437	0.01	0.03	0.845	0.01	0.05	0.708
2nd block: EF
EF-planning^a				−0.02	−0.04	0.768	−0.02	−0.03	0.816	0.03	0.05	0.663
EF-switching^b				−0.08	−0.21	0.119	−0.06	−0.16	0.216	−0.01	−0.01	0.988
3rd block:
DEX-proxy							0.26	0.31	0.020	0.27	0.32	0.012
4th block:
FEEST										0.02	0.04	0.781
SC-ToM ^c										−0.16	−0.40	0.007
∆R2 (R2 change)	9%, p = 0.065			13% (5%), p = 0.078			21% (8%), p = 0.016			32% (10%), p = 0.003

Note. ^a Zoomap Test, ^b composite score TMT-B and Letterfluency, FEEST: Facial Expressions of Emotion Stimuli and Tests, ^c SC-ToM: Theory of Mind (composite score Happé Cartoons and Faux Pas test), DEX-proxy: Dysexecutive questionnaire – proxy rated.