Self-reported Participation Restrictions Among Male and Female Veterans With Traumatic Brain Injury in Veterans Health Administration Outpatient Polytrauma Programs

To identify areas of most restricted self-reported participation among veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI), explore associations among participation restriction and clinical characteristics, and examine differences in participation restrictions by sex. Retrospective cross-sectional design. National VA Polytrauma System of Care outpatient settings. Veterans with a confirmed TBI event (N=6065). Not applicable. Mayo-Portland Participation Index (M2PI), a 5-point Likert-type scale with 8 items. Total score was converted to standardized T score for analysis. The sample consisted of 5679 male and 386 female veterans with ≥1 clinically confirmed TBI events (69% white; 74% with blast exposure). The M2PI items with greatest perceived restrictions were social contact, leisure, and initiation. There were no significant differences between men and women on M2PI standardized T scores. Wilcoxon rank-sum analyses showed significant differences by sex on 4 items: leisure, residence, employment, and financial management (all P