TBI-CareQOL family disruption: Family disruption in caregivers of persons with TBI.

The caregivers were required to be caring for a person with TBI at least one year after injury, so the results may not apply to families in the first year. Paid professional caregivers were excluded, so the scale was not tested on paid support workers. The sample was mostly female and had high educational attainment, so it may not apply as well to male caregivers or caregivers with less education. 40 participants were missing Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory-4 data, so some known-groups analyses used fewer participants than the full sample. The final scale has only three items, which limits checking item bias and prevents computer adaptive testing. The authors call the support preliminary and say more research is needed to show whether the scale can detect change after interventions. A small floor effect appeared in the civilian group, so the scale may not distinguish very low disruption well in that group.

Do not read this as evidence that screening caregivers improves patient or family outcomes. The study validated a brief measure, not an intervention.