Depression as a Predictor of Long-term Employment Outcomes Among Individuals With Moderate-to-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.

Objective: To examine the predictive ability of depression when considering long-term employment outcomes for individuals with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) after controlling for key preinjury and injury-related variables.

Design: Secondary data analysis.

Setting: Community follow-up after discharge from an inpatient rehabilitation center.

Participants: Individuals between 18 and 60 years old with moderate-to-severe TBI enrolled in the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems database.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures: Employment status.

Results: The prevalence of employment at 2 and 5 years post injury was 40.3% and 44.5%, respectively. Individuals identified as depressed at 1 year were more likely to be unemployed at 2 years post injury (odds ratio [OR], 1.77; 95% CI, 1.38-2.27; P<.0001). Similar relations between current depression and future employment were observed from 1- and 2-year depression status predicting 5-year employment (1-year: OR, 1.88; 95% CI, 1.48-2.40; P<.0001: 2-year: OR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.36-2.17; P<.0001).

Conclusions: After controlling for baseline predictors variables, the experience of postinjury depression-a modifiable condition-contributes predictive ability to future employment outcomes. Incorporating assessments and/or interventions for depression into postacute rehabilitation programs could promote favorable employment outcomes after TBI.