Self-efficacy and quality of life after low-intensity neuropsychological rehabilitation: A pre-post intervention study

BACKGROUND: Being highly self-efficacious is a key factor in successful chronic disease self-management. It is unknown whether neuropsychological rehabilitation improves self-efficacy in managing the consequences of brain injury.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether levels of general and brain injury specific self-efficacy and quality of life (QoL) increased after neuropsychological rehabilitation and whether cognitive performance was associated with self-efficacy.

METHODS: We conducted a retrospective clinical cohort study of 62 patients with acquired brain injury and cognitive complaints with measurements before start and after completion of treatment. QoL was measured with the visual analogue scale (EQ VAS) of the EuroQol (EQ-5D); self-efficacy with the TBI Self-efficacy Questionnaire (SEsx) and the General Self-efficacy Scale (GSES). Cognitive performance was measured as a compound score of tests for memory, attention and information processing speed.

RESULTS: Self-efficacy for managing brain injury-specific symptoms and QoL increased significantly after neuropsychological rehabilitation. Both general and brain injury-specific self-efficacy were positively associated with QoL after completion of the programme. Cognitive performance was not associated with self-efficacy for managing brain injury-specific symptoms nor with general self-efficacy.

CONCLUSIONS: Self-efficacy and QoL improve after treatment. Further research is needed to identify the specific ingredients responsible for improvement of self-efficacy in patients with cognitive complaints.