Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Functional Outcome in Older Adults: Pain Interference But Not Cognition Mediates the Relationship Between Traumatic Injury and Functional Difficulties

Objective: To examine functional status of older people 3 months after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and identify whether pain interference or cognition mediates any relationship found between injury status and functional outcomes. Setting: Patients admitted to a Melbourne-based emergency department. Participants: Older adults 65 years and older: 40 with mTBI, 66 with orthopedic injury without mTBI (TC), and 47 healthy controls (CC) without injury. Design: Observational cohort study. Main Measures: Functional outcome was measured using the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS 2.0) and single- and dual-task conditions of the Timed-Up-and-Go task. Pain interference and cognitive performance at 3 months post-injury were examined as mediators of the relationship between injury status (injured vs noninjured) and functional outcome. Results: Patients with mTBI and/or orthopedic injury reported greater difficulties in overall functioning, including community participation, compared with noninjured older people (CC group). Both trauma groups walked slower than the CC group on the mobility task, but all groups were similar on the dual-task condition. Pain interference mediated the relationship between injury status and overall functioning [ b = 0.284; 95% CI = 0.057, 0.536), community participation ( b = 0.259; 95% CI = 0.051, 0.485), and mobility ( b = 0.116; 95% CI = 0.019, 0.247). However, cognition did not mediate the relationship between injury status and functional outcomes. Conclusions: Three months after mild traumatic injury (with and without mTBI), patients 65 years and older had greater functional difficulties compared with noninjured peers. Pain interference, but not cognition, partially explained the impact of traumatic injury on functional outcomes. This highlights the importance of reducing pain interference for older patients after injury (including mTBI) to support better functional recovery.