In the field of pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI), relationships between pre-injury
and injury-related characteristics and post-TBI outcomes (functional recovery, post-concussion depression, anxiety) and their impact on disease-specific health-related quality of life (HRQoL) are
under-investigated. Here, a multidimensional conceptual model was tested using a structural equation model (SEM). The final SEM evaluates the associations between these four latent variables. We
retrospectively investigated 152 children (8–12 years) and 148 adolescents (13–17 years) after TBI
at the recruiting clinics or online. The final SEM displayed a fair goodness-of-fit (SRMR = 0.09,
RMSEA = 0.08 with 90% CI [0.068, 0.085], GFI = 0.87, CFI = 0.83), explaining 39% of the variance
across the four latent variables and 45% of the variance in HRQoL in particular. The relationships
between pre-injury and post-injury outcomes and between post-injury outcomes and TBI-specific
HRQoL were moderately strong. Especially, pre-injury characteristics (children’s age, sensory, cognitive, or physical impairments, neurological and chronic diseases, and parental education) may
aggravate post-injury outcomes, which in turn may influence TBI-specific HRQoL negatively. Thus,
the SEM comprises potential risk factors for developing negative post-injury outcomes, impacting
TBI-specific HRQoL. Our findings may assist healthcare providers and parents in the management,
therapy, rehabilitation, and care of pediatric individuals after TBI.
