Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a complex disease process and the signature injury of current military conflicts, affecting 10-20% of those wounded during service in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Recent Institute of Medicine reports have recommended the Veterans Administration (VA) conduct research to develop protocols to improve management of symptoms and improve health and well-being of service members with TBI. There is a growing literature on the efficacy of self-management support (SMS) programs designed to support patients with chronic diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, arthritis, and diabetes; collectively, the results suggest that SMS is a key component to realizing optimized outcomes for individuals with chronic conditions. The VA commitment to telehealth is unrivaled, and though comprehensive SMS programs for mild TBI (mTBI) have not been studied, preliminary evidence from skill-specific training programs for TBI suggests that a comprehensive SMS telehealth program for mTBI could be beneficial. The proposed project is designed to advance clinical telehealth practice for mTBI by completing the preliminary steps toward the development of a measure to assess self- management knowledge, skills and beliefs of veterans with mTBI, pairing it with new gold standard symptom and quality-of-life assessment tools, and linking both components to evidence-based intervention options. The mixed-method research approach was modeled after the comprehensive measurement development activities developed by the PROMIS network, a 100 million dollar NIH Roadmap effort, which is developing a new and comprehensive system of patient self-report symptom and quality of life measures. This approach incorporates expert panel and veteran focus group review of patient self-management information domains compiled through comprehensive search strategies. The conceptual model produced through qualitative review will be actualized through the creation of item pools for the subdomains of patient activation. The dimensionality of the construct and psychometric properties of the item pool will be evaluated using both multivariate statistical and modern measurement models (i.e., Item Response Theory). Finally, the scope and strategies of a measurement-based telehealth intervention will be defined and introduced to implementers. Achieving the aims outlined in this protocol will immediately increase the functionality of the VA telehealth program. By leveraging and aligning with ongoing research efforts, the current project (1) transforms VA telehealth text messaging devices into precision assessment instruments while decreasing the response burden for patients, and (2) allows comparison of disease burden across different VA patient populations and between civilian and veteran patient populations, allowing the VA to prioritize clinical and research resources most efficiently. This application is significant because of the large number of veterans with mTBI that will require clinical care in the coming decades. The application is also innovative because of its development and validation of psychometrically sophisticated yet pragmatic measures to assess and monitor mTBI coupled with a strategy to create effective self-management strategies as step 1 care for delivery in telehealth programs.

Public Health Relevance

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has affected thousands of veterans involved in recent military conflicts. Persistent symptoms occur in 10-20% of patients with mTBI. This project is designed to develop an assessment tool to measure the self-management knowledge, skills and beliefs of veterans with mTBI that would be paired with symptom assessment tools and linked to evidence-based rehabilitation approaches. This comprehensive assessment system would be delivered using existing telehealth infrastructure, significantly extending the ability of care managers to monitor veterans with mild traumatic brain injury and reduce the long-term psychosocial and medical needs from both persistent deficits and problems that develop in later life, including increased risk of suicide, homelessness, unemployment, marital discord, neurodegenerative diseases, and reduced community participation.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Veterans Affairs (VA)
Type
Veterans Administration (IK2)
Project #
5IK2RX000879-06
Application #
9108871
Study Section
Career Development Program - Panel II (RRD9)
Project Start
2012-07-01
Project End
2017-06-30
Budget Start
2016-07-01
Budget End
2017-06-30
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
2017
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
VA Salt Lake City Healthcare System
Department
Type
Independent Hospitals
DUNS #
009094756
City
Salt Lake City
State
UT
Country
United States
Zip Code
84148
Chen, Chen X; Kroenke, Kurt; Stump, Timothy E et al. (2018) Estimating minimally important differences for the PROMIS pain interference scales: results from 3 randomized clinical trials. Pain 159:775-782
Kean, Jacob; Brodke, Darrel S; Biber, Joshua et al. (2018) An introduction to Item Response Theory and Rasch Analysis of the Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10). Brain Impair 19:91-102
Ash, Andrea C; Redmond, Sean M; Timler, Geralyn R et al. (2017) The influence of scale structure and sex on parental reports of children's social (pragmatic) communication symptoms. Clin Linguist Phon 31:293-312
Malec, James F; Kean, Jacob; Monahan, Patrick O (2017) The Minimal Clinically Important Difference for the Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory. J Head Trauma Rehabil 32:E47-E54
Kroenke, Kurt; Wu, Jingwei; Yu, Zhangsheng et al. (2016) Patient Health Questionnaire Anxiety and Depression Scale: Initial Validation in Three Clinical Trials. Psychosom Med 78:716-27
Kean, Jacob; Monahan, Patrick O; Kroenke, Kurt et al. (2016) Comparative Responsiveness of the PROMIS Pain Interference Short Forms, Brief Pain Inventory, PEG, and SF-36 Bodily Pain Subscale. Med Care 54:414-21
Davis, Lorie L; Kroenke, Kurt; Monahan, Patrick et al. (2016) The SPADE Symptom Cluster in Primary Care Patients With Chronic Pain. Clin J Pain 32:388-93
Kroenke, Kurt; Monahan, Patrick O; Kean, Jacob (2015) Pragmatic characteristics of patient-reported outcome measures are important for use in clinical practice. J Clin Epidemiol 68:1085-92
McGuire, Alan B; Salyers, Michelle P; White, Dominique A et al. (2015) Factors affecting implementation of an evidence-based practice in the Veterans Health Administration: Illness management and recovery. Psychiatr Rehabil J 38:300-5
Thurber, Steven; Kishi, Yasuhiro; Trzepacz, Paula T et al. (2015) Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Delirium Rating Scale Revised-98 (DRS-R98). J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 27:e122-7

Showing the most recent 10 out of 14 publications