Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention on Reducing Misconceptions Among Ethnic Minorities With Complicated Mild to Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of an educational intervention designed to reduce traumatic brain injury (TBI)-related misconceptions among blacks and Latinos with complicated mild to severe TBI.

DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial with masked 1-month follow-up.

SETTING: Community.

PARTICIPANTS: Persons (N=52) with complicated mild to severe TBI (mean best day 1 Glasgow Coma Scale score, 11.27±3.89) were randomly recruited from 141 eligible participants (mean age, 37.71±13.88y; age range, 19-66y; mean months postinjury, 24.69±11.50); 25 participants (48.1%) of participants were black and 27 (51.9%) were Hispanic/Latino. Of the Hispanic/Latino participants, 18 (66.7%) were non-U.S. born and 12 (44.4%) spoke Spanish as their primary language. Twenty-seven individuals were randomized to the educational intervention group and 25 were randomized to the wait-list control group.

INTERVENTIONS: Single-session educational intervention with written materials provided in English or Spanish.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Forty-item Common Misconceptions about Traumatic Brain Injury Questionnaire administered at baseline and 1-month follow-up.

RESULTS: After controlling for ethnic and language differences, a significant between-group main effect (P=.010) and a significant time-group interaction for the Common Misconceptions about Traumatic Brain Injury Questionnaire were noted (Wilks Λ=.89; F1,46 =6.00; P=.02). The intervention group showed a decrease in TBI misconception percentages, whereas the wait-list control group maintained similar percentages. At 1-month follow-up, the wait-list control group reported more misconceptions than did the intervention group (P=.019).

CONCLUSIONS: An educational intervention developed to address the recovery process, common symptoms, and ways to handle the symptoms provides promise as a tool to decrease TBI misconceptions among persons from ethnically and educationally diverse backgrounds. The effects of therapist characteristics and the client-therapist relation on outcomes should be further explored.