Refining understanding of life satisfaction in elderly persons with traumatic brain injury using age-defined cohorts: a TBI model systems study.

OBJECTIVE Examine effects of age cohort on post-injury life satisfaction in elderly persons with TBIDesign: Retrospective cohortSetting: TBI Model Systems centers. PARTICIPANTS 5,109 elderly participants with TBI in the TBI Model Systems National DatabaseInterventions: Not applicableMain Outcome Measures: Demographics, injury characteristics and cause, outcomes, age at time of analysis, time to follow commands, maximum follow-up period, and scores on the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) and Participation Assessment with Recombined Tools-Objective (PART-O) scores at 1, 2, 5, or 10 years post-injury. RESULTS Life satisfaction post-TBI across groups increased with age. The young-old sub-group demonstrated the poorest life satisfaction outcomes, while the oldest sub-group experienced greatest life satisfaction. In contrast, participation decreased with age. CONCLUSIONS Findings show diversity in satisfaction with life following moderate to severe TBI for three elderly age-cohorts. Differences may be due to variations in generation-based lived experience, in perceived meaningfulness of participation, could echo prior evidence of greater resilience in the oldest group, or could reflect bias within the study sample. Further research into between- and within- differences for elderly TBI age cohorts is needed to more precisely meet their needs for physical and functional rehabilitation as well as psychological supports.