Life Satisfaction Assessment 1 Year after Traumatic Brain Injury: Exploring the Impact of Language and Employment Status

Research Objectives: To assess satisfaction with life in the context of primary language spoken at home and paid employment status in individuals with TBI.

Design: Retrospective, secondary data analysis gathered from the Rusk Rehabilitation TBI Model System (RRTBIMS) at discharge and one-year from injury.

Setting: Two urban hospitals in New York City.

Participants: A total of 204 individuals with TBI enrolled in the RRTBIMS between May 2013 and October 2021. Participants were primarily from a racial minority group (59.9%), male (82.4%), single (51.5%), and born in the US (58.3%). Individuals had an average age of 48 years (SD=18.6).

Interventions: N/A

Main Outcome Measures: Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) collected one year from injury.

Results: Participants who reported speaking a language other than English at home had higher SWLS scores (M=23.3, SD=7.4) than English speakers (M=20.5, SD=7.7). Individuals with paid employment one-year post-injury had higher satisfaction with life (M=24.1, SD=7.4) compared to those unemployed or in unpaid work (M=20.3, SD=7.6). Significant differences between SWLS scores and language spoken at home (p=0.007) and paid employment status (p <.001) were revealed in t-test analyses.

Conclusions: Life satisfaction is dependent on many lifestyle factors. After a TBI, individuals often report low life satisfaction. These findings add to the existing literature by revealing that speaking a non-English language at home and being in paid employment correlates with higher life satisfaction one-year from injury. These findings provide practitioners valuable insights to guide intervention and rehabilitation efforts to increase life satisfaction and quality of life outcomes among individuals with TBI.

Author(s) Disclosures: All authors have no conflict of interests to report.