Brain Injury

Oral Presentation

(589152) The Association Between Community Participation and Social Internet Use Among Adults With Traumatic Brain Injury

Presenter(s)

• 

  Mitch Sevigny, BS, MS

  Biostatistician
  Craig Hospital
  Englewood, Colorado

Non-presenting Author(s)

• 

  Jessica Ketchum, PhD

  Lead Biostatistician
  Craig Hospital
  Engleweeod, Colorado
• 

  Tessa Hart, PhD, FACRM

  Institute Scientist
  Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute
  Elkins Park, Pennsylvania
• 

  Therese O'Neil-Pirozzi, ScD, CCC-SLP

  Research Speech-Language Pathologist
  Spaulding/Harvard Traumatic Brain Injury Model System; Northeastern University
  West Roxbury, Massachusetts
• 

  Librada Callender, MPH

  Epidemiologist
  Baylor Scott & White Institute for Rehabilitation
  Dallas, Texas
• 

  Laura Dreer, PhD

  Associate Professor
  Universtity of Alabama at Birmingham
  Birmingham, Alabama
• 

  Angelle Sander, Ph.D., FACRM

  Associate Professor
  Baylor College of Medicine
  Houston, Texas
• 

  Shannon Juengst, PhD, CRC

  Assistant Professor
  UT Southwestern
  Dallas, Texas
• 

  Thomas Bergquist, PhD, ABPP-Cn, FACRM

  Consultant
  Mayo Clinic
  Rochester, Minnesota
• 

  Jennifer Bogner, PhD, FACRM

  Professor
  Ohio State University
  Carroll, Ohio
• 

  Gale Whiteneck, PhD, FACRM

  Principal Investigator
  Craig Hospital
  Englewood, Colorado

To investigate the relationship between social internet use and societal participation after traumatic brain injury (TBI), 331 adults from 10 centers enrolled in the TBI Model System National Database were interviewed. The details of their social internet use were collected along with their scores on the Participation Assessed with Combined Tools – Objective (PART-O). Social internet users had significantly higher PART-O scores on the Social dimension and the Out and About dimension, but not on the Productivity dimension. Insights from this presentation may help clinicians consider patients' use of social internet sites post-TBI based on rehabilitation goals.

Objective: To assess the relationship between social internet use and a measure of social participation in the community among adults with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Design: Prospective cross-sectional observational cohort study.

Setting: Ten Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems Centers.

Participants: Persons with moderate to severe TBI enrolled in the TBI Model Systems National Database and eligible for follow-up from April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015 (N = 331).

Main Measures: The three subscales of the Participation Assessment with Recombined Tools – Objective (PART-O).

Results: Participants were classified as social internet users or non-users based on self-reported social internet use. All analyses controlled for relevant demographic and injury characteristics. Social internet users had significantly higher PART-O Social Relations subscale scores as compared to non-users. A similar association was found between social internet use and PART-O Out and About subscale scores, however participants’ depression scores had an additional moderating effect. That is, social internet users had higher PART-O Out and About subscale scores than non-users overall, but the differences were larger for those with higher depression scores. There was not a significant difference found in PART-O Productivity subscale scores between social internet users and non-users.

Conclusions: There exist multiple participation restrictions and barriers for persons with TBI. While we considered the possibility that people with TBI who were unable to socialize in person might compensate via social internet use, this did not appear to be the case, as high PART-O Social Relations subscale scores were positively associated with high social use of the internet.

 

Learning Objectives:

• List at least one reason why research on social media and internet use is relevant for disability populations such as TBI. Social media and the internet could become valuable tools to help integrate the TBI population back into the community and social activities.
• Discuss how the use of the internet for social purposes is related to real-world participation after TBI. People with disabilities face environmental and social obstacles to real-world participation, as well as barriers related to the disability such as physical, sensory, or intellectual limitations. Based on prior reasearch, social media has shown a positive association with participation in a variety of other disabilities. Social media and internet use will hopefully have the same positive association with TBI disability.
• Describe how depression is related to real-world and online participation after TBI. Depression has a relationship with societal particiaption. Since social media and the internet possess societal elements, depression will more than likely have a similar relationship to participating in this online society.
• Upon completion, participants will be able to understand the value of instituting social media and the internet in post-TBI rehabilitation.
• Upon completion, participants will be able to investigate the use of the internet socially in integrating TBI patients back into the community.