Sex/gender differences in service use patterns, clinical outcomes and mortality risk for adults with acquired brain injury: a retrospective cohort study (ABI-RESTART).
Georgina Mann, Lakkhina Troeung, Angelita Martini
PMID 37698453WHAT IT FOUND
Women entered post-acute brain injury care with lower motor function than men but made equivalent functional gains.
However, women were significantly more likely to require multiple episodes of care, suggesting they face greater barriers to community integration after discharge.
Key findings
01Women had significantly lower total and motor functional independence at admission compared to men.
02There was no significant difference in the magnitude of functional gains between women and men from admission to discharge.
03Women had a 15% higher probability than men of requiring multiple episodes of care.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is retrospective and uses routine clinical data, which may be incomplete or biased. Sex and gender were treated as a single combined variable because they were not separately recorded in the source data. The cohort is from a single provider in Western Australia, limiting generalizability. Mortality data did not include deaths during the early COVID-19 pandemic, which may have affected rates. There were unequal numbers of women and men, which may reflect barriers to service access rather than population differences.
Declared interests
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the lack of significant difference in functional gain magnitude as evidence that women and men start from the same baseline. Women started with significantly lower motor function, and their gains, while statistically similar in magnitude to men's, were clinically significant whereas men's were not.