Reliability and Construct Validity of the TBI-QOL Communication Short Form as a Parent-Proxy Report Instrument for Children With Traumatic Brain Injury.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate the internal consistency and construct validity of the Traumatic Brain Injury Quality of Life Communication Item Bank (TBI-QOL COM) short form as a parent-proxy report measure. The TBI-QOL COM is a patient-reported outcome measure of functional communication originally developed as a self-report measure for adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI), but it may also be valid as a parent-proxy report measure for children who have sustained TBI. Method One hundred twenty-nine parent-proxy raters completed the TBI-QOL COM short form 6 months postinjury as a secondary aim of a multisite study of pediatric TBI outcomes. The respondents' children with TBI were between 8 and 18 years old (M age = 13.2 years old) at the time of injury, and the proportion of TBI severity mirrored national trends (73% complicated–mild; 27% moderate or severe). Results The parent-proxy report version of the TBI-QOL COM displayed strong internal consistency (ordinal α = .93). It also di...