Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders

1
Educating the General Public about the Impact of
Acquired Brain Injuries
Michael Fraas, PhD, and Jesse Edwards Williams
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
University of New Hampshire, Durham NH
Results of Survey Responses
Introduction
Acquired brain injury (ABI) from trauma or stroke
impacts the lives of millions of individuals and
their families. In the US, stroke is the leading
cause of serious, long-term disability with a
prevalence of 5.7 million survivors 1,2. An
additional 5.4 million individuals live with
long-term disability from traumatic brain injury
(TBI) 3,4. Despite the prevalence, there are
many misconceptions held by the general public
about ABI, which in turn leads to a lack of
resources and support to assist survivors 5.
Education of the public about the impact of ABI
is essential in order to eliminate misconceptions
and help survivors improve their quality of life
6. Purpose of this Investigation To report
the effectiveness of different methods of
educating the general public and decreasing their
misconceptions about ABI.
Effects of and Recovery from ABI
A 2x3 chi-square analysis (critical value 5.99)
determined that the group that read the pamphlet
were more accurate in their response to the
statement, Complete recovery from a severe head
injury is not possible, no matter how badly the
person wants to recover compared to the other
two groups Survey only 28.8Pamphlet
60.7Movie and Pamphlet 43.8X2 8.10.
Methods
Participants N 103 (female 73, male
30)Participants either read an educational
pamphlet or watched a documentary video of ABI
survivors in addition to reading the pamphlet.
Their responses to a survey were compared with
participants who received neither form of
educational resource. 59 completed the survey
only. 28 read an educational pamphlet about ABI
before completing the survey. 16 watched a
video in addition to reading a pamphlet and
completing the survey.
Knowledge of Community Integration Following ABI
Materials
Survey A 50-item survey was developed.
Participants were asked to make judgments on
their amount of exposure to survivors of ABI,
their attitudes about ABI, factual knowledge
about ABI, and issues related to the ABI recovery
process and community integration. Pamphlet An
informative pamphlet highlighting facts and
common misconceptions about ABI from trauma and
stroke was developed. Video Interviews with
survivors of ABI were previously recorded at The
Krempels Brain Injury Foundation in Portsmouth,
NH. A video documentary of these interviews was
created to highlight the needs and challenges of
survivors of ABI. The documentary can be viewed
online at mms//bbvideo.unh.edu/content/fraas/101
305steppingtones.wmv.
A 2x3 chi-square analysis (critical value
10.60) determined that the group that viewed the
video and read the pamphlet were least likely to
agree with the statement, "Most survivors of
acquired brain injury are able to return to work,
school, or volunteer work."
Survey only 81.3Pamphlet 57.2Video
37.5X2 13.06
Discussion
Procedures Participants received notification
about participation in this investigation via
email and were randomly assigned to one of three
groups
References
The results of this study are similar to previous
findings indicating that misconceptions about ABI
perseverate among the general population 5.
The educational resources used in this study may
help to improve participants knowledge about the
ABI recovery process. However, further data
collection is needed before conclusions can be
generalized. The participants in this study who
viewed an ABI educational documentary seemed to
have more realistic beliefs about community
integration of survivors of ABI compared to those
who did not view the video. This may be
attributed to the fact that the video was filmed
at a community day program for adults with ABI
and that issues about community integration were
discussed in the film. Further investigations
that examine the effectiveness of various
resources for educating the public about the
effects of ABI are warranted.
1. CDC. Prevalence of disabilities and associated
health conditions among adults United States,
1999. MMWR 200150120-125. 2. Thurman DJ,
Alverson C, Dunn KA, Guerrero J, Sniezek JE.
Traumatic brain injury in the United States A
public health perspective. J Head Trauma Rehabil
199914(6)602-15. 3. Langlois JA, Kegler SR,
Butler JA, Gotsch KE, Johnson RL, Reichard AA,
Webb KW, Coronado VG, Selassie AW, Thurman DJ.
Traumatic brain injury-related hospital
discharges. Results from a 14-state surveillance
system, 1997. MMWR Surveill Summ
200352(4)1-20. 4. Kissela B, Broderick J, Woo
D, Kothari R, Miller R, Khoury J, Brott T,
Pancioli A, Jauch E, Gebel J, Shukla R, Alwell K,
Tomsick T. Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky
Stroke Study volume of first-ever ischemic
stroke among blacks in a population-based study.
Stroke 200132(6)1285-90. 5. Hux K, Schram CD,
Goeken T. Misconceptions about brain injury a
survey replication study. Brain Inj
200620(5)547-53. 6. Swift TL, Wilson SL.
Misconceptions about brain injury among the
general public and non-expert health
professionals an exploratory study. Brain Inj
200115(2)149-65.
1. Complete the survey only. 2. Read an
educational pamphlet and then complete the
survey.3. Watch a documentary video about ABI,
read the pamphlet, and then complete the survey.
Statistics Responses to survey questions were
used to determine accurate and inaccurate beliefs
about the effects of ABI and the recovery
process. Chi-square analysis examined differences
in knowledge and beliefs between groups.
Contact
Acknowledgment
603.862.4591michael.fraas_at_unh.edu
The Krempels Brain Injury Foundation www.krempelsf
oundation.org