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Abstract
Objective:
Sleep disturbances, including insomnia, are common following Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Gender, race, and age disparities have been observed to be related to TBI outcomes, although their relationships to sleep-related problems are not well understood. The objective of this study is to examine demographic and health correlates of sleep problems among TBI survivors and healthy controls.
Participants and Methods:
Data from the Federal Interagency Traumatic Brain Injury Research (FITBIR) Informatics System was used. Participants were 1601 adults with a history of TBI as well as healthy controls recruited for the TRACK-TBI study. Demographic characteristics as well as sleep problems, measured by the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), and post-concussion symptoms, measured by the Rivermead Post Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire (RPQ), were extracted from datasets. A multiple linear regression model was used to examine the relationship between demographic characteristics of the sample and sleep outcomes.
Results:
Participants included were primarily male (65.20%), White (79.88%), had completed at least High School (70.95%), had a mean age of 41.28 years (SD = 16.72), and self-reported sustaining a TBI (n = 1811, 73.77%) at the time of the study. The majority of this sample reported no symptoms of insomnia (84.25%), with 32.51% reporting subthreshold symptoms, 13.29% reporting moderate symptoms, and 5.50% reporting severe insomnia symptoms. Participants also reported limited post-concussion symptoms according to the RPQ (mean = 10.24, SD = 13.16), and 6.46% of participants reporting moderate-severe post-concussion symptoms (e.g., headaches, dizziness, difficulty concentrating). Overall, the model accounted for 40% of the variance in the data set (R2 = 0.40). Among the variables explored, both increased post-concussion symptom severity (t = 32.02, p < 0.001) and having suffered a TBI (t = 4.30, p < 0.001) were significantly correlated with increased insomnia symptom severity.
Conclusions:
Post-concussion symptoms appeared to be significantly associated with insomnia among our sample. Further, TBI patients were significantly more likely to report sleep problems compared to the healthy controls. Other demographic characteristics did not appear to significantly predict insomnia symptoms in our model; however, systemic disparities may limit access to research studies and our sample was likely not representative of the population of TBI patients in the US. Researchers should continue to recruit diverse samples and investigate potential explanations for these observed disparities in the field. Further, sleep problems have been observed to exacerbate cognitive deficits among healthy and TBI patients alike. It will be imperative for neuropsychologists to continue to monitor insomnia and other sleep disturbances following TBI in their assessments.
Description
This is the paper from a presentation given at International Neuropsychological Society on 02/15/2025
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Date
2025-02-15
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Publisher
University of Kansas
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Keywords
Traumatic Brain Injury, Executive Function, Insomnia