An overview of outcome measures used in neuropsychological rehabilitation research on adults with acquired brain injury

Abstract

Outcome measurement is the cornerstone of evidence-based health care including neuropsychological rehabilitation. A complicating factor for outcome measurement in neuropsychological rehabilitation is the enormous number of measures available and the lack of a standard set of outcome measures. As a first step towards such a set, we reviewed intervention evaluation studies of the last 20 years to get an overview of instruments used for measuring outcome. The instruments were divided into two main categories: neuropsychological tests (International Classification of Functioning (ICF) level of functions) and other instruments (all other ICF domains). We considered the most common cognitive domains: memory, attention, executive functions, neglect, perception, apraxia, language/communication and awareness. Instruments used most for measuring outcome were neuropsychological tests (n = 215) in the domains of working memory, reaction times, neglect and aphasia. In the second category (n = 166) the multi-domain instruments were most represented. Several steps can be taken to select a standard set of outcome measures for future use. Next to evaluation of quality and feasibility of the instruments, expert opinion and consensus procedures can be applied.