• Nicole von Steinbuechel, Amra Covic, Suzanne Polinder, Thomas Kohlmann, Ugne Cepulyte, Herbert Poinstingl, Joy Backhaus, Wilbert Bakx, Monika Bullinger, Anne-Lise Christensen, Rita Formisano, Henning Gibbons, Stefan Höfer, Sanna Koskinen, Andrew Maas, Edmund Neugebauer, Jane Powell, Jaana Sarajuuri, Nadine Sasse, Silke Schmidt, Holger Mühlan, Klaus von Wild, George Zitnay, and Jean-Luc Truelle.
• Institute of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, University of Medicine Göttingen, Waldweg 37, 37073 Göttingen, Germany.
• Behav Neurol. 2016 Jan 1; 2016: 7928014.

AbstractPsychosocial, emotional, and physical problems can emerge after traumatic brain injury (TBI), potentially impacting health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Until now, however, neither the discriminatory power of disease-specific (QOLIBRI) and generic (SF-36) HRQoL nor their correlates have been compared in detail. These aspects as well as some psychometric item characteristics were studied in a sample of 795 TBI survivors. The Shannon H (') index absolute informativity, as an indicator of an instrument's power to differentiate between individuals within a specific group or health state, was investigated. Psychometric performance of the two instruments was predominantly good, generally higher, and more homogenous for the QOLIBRI than for the SF-36 subscales. Notably, the SF-36 "Role Physical," "Role Emotional," and "Social Functioning" subscales showed less satisfactory discriminatory power than all other dimensions or the sum scores of both instruments. The absolute informativity of disease-specific as well as generic HRQoL instruments concerning the different groups defined by different correlates differed significantly. When the focus is on how a certain subscale or sum score differentiates between individuals in one specific dimension/health state, the QOLIBRI can be recommended as the preferable instrument.

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