TABLE 1.
Measure | Description | Designed to measure | Properties |
---|---|---|---|
GOS-E (Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended)17 | Administered by structured interview with a focus on independence in the home and community as changed by traumatic brain injury (TBI). Results classify the outcome at 8 levels ranging from death to upper-good recovery | Global outcome; developed to improve sensitivity and reliability over the original GOS33 | Relationship with initial severity and multiple measures of TBI outcome superior to original GOS. More sensitive to change from 3 to 6 mo than GOS34 |
COWAT (Controlled Oral Word Association Test)35 | Subject generates as many words as possible beginning with a given letter within 1 min. Score is the total number of words generated over 3 trials | Verbal fluency under time pressure, thought to reflect frontal/executive function | Sensitive to effects of TBI25,34 |
Trail Making Test36 | Two components, A and B, involve connecting items sequentially in a visual array. Part A requires simple number sequencing while part B requires alternation between numbers and letters. Scores are the times needed for completion | Sustained and divided attention; mental flexibility; psychomotor speed, set-shifting ability | Sensitive to TBI severity, to recovery over time and related to other measures of outcome.37,38 Correlated with functional outcomes such as need for supervision39 and functional safety40 |
California Verbal Learning Test23 | Learning of a 16-word list over 5 trials. Scores include total number of words recalled, number within categories, recognition memory, etc | Verbal learning, use of category information to promote recall | Sensitive to the effects of TBI and its severity of injury27,34 |
Digit span (from WAIS III)41 | Maximum span for repeating a series of digits forward and backward | Auditory working memory | Sensitive to severity of injury and recovery42 |
Processing speed index (from Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–III)41 | Two components: Digit-symbol coding: Rapid transcription of symbols Symbol search: Rapid visual scanning of geometric forms |
Visual processing speed; visuomotor speed | Has a component of working memory; sensitive to the effects of TBI35 |
Stroop Task22 | Generates a conflict between automatic and effortful processing by requiring identification of color of ink ignoring printed words (eg, “red” written in green ink) | Executive abilities, particularly inhibition of automatic responses | Sensitive to effects of TBI even in those with good recovery39 |