Perceptions of communication abilities for persons with traumatic brain injury: Validity of the La Trobe Communication Questionnaire

Primary objective: To further evaluate the construct validity of the La Trobe Communication Questionnaire (LCQ) and to investigate the extent to which self-ratings of adults with traumatic brain injury compared to ratings made by close others and self-ratings made by non-injured matched controls. Research design: Prospective cohort study. Methods and procedures: Two hundred and seventy-six adults with TBI (121 of which are >1-year post-injury and previously enrolled in TBI Model Systems and 155 of which were consecutively admitted to a Level 1 trauma centre and were at least 6-months post-injury) completed the La Trobe Communication Questionnaire. In addition, for the TBI Model systems sample, 88 friends/family members and 80 non-injured matched controls participated. Main outcomes and results: Principle components analysis with varimax rotation yielded four factors: Initiation/Conversational Flow, Disinhibition/Impulsivity, Conversational Effectiveness and Partner Sensitivity, which were found to have adequate internal consistency. Adequate discriminative validity was obtained in comparing adults with TBI to non-injured matched controls, while no significant differences were found between self-ratings of communication abilities by adults with TBI and those made by close others. Conclusions: Additional support for the LCQ as a useful measure of perceived social communication abilities was obtained. Confirmatory factor analysis with a larger sample of adults with TBI will be a useful step in further development of this tool.