Longitudinal associations of time-varying homeboundness and life satisfaction after traumatic brain injury.

Abstract

Purpose/objective: To examine the association of changes in homebound status (i.e., never/rarely leaving the home) with life satisfaction in the first 10 years after traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Research method/design: We analyzed data from 2,294 individuals with moderate-to-severe TBI from the TBI Model Systems National Database using a longitudinal multilevel model with time-varying predictors to account for within-person changes over time as well as between-person differences. We measured homebound status (defined as leaving the home ≤ 2 days/week) and life satisfaction (defined as the total score on the Satisfaction With Life Scale) at 1, 2, 5, and 10 years post-TBI. We adjusted the models for demographic and injury-related covariates and used inverse probability weighting to account for selection bias.

Results: Forty-five (2%) individuals were homebound at all follow-up visits, 523 (22.8%) were homebound at least one follow-up visit, and 1,726 (75.2%) were never homebound. Individuals with TBI who were consistently homebound had > 1 SD lower life satisfaction compared to those who were never homebound, β = -8.07, 95% confidence interval (CI) = [-9.39, -6.76], p < .001. Individuals who became homebound experienced a significant, but modest, decline in life satisfaction (β = -2.13, 95% CI = [-2.66, -1.61], p < .001).

Conclusions/implications: Our results indicate that being homebound and becoming homebound are associated with decreased life satisfaction. Homeboundness is a potentially modifiable target to improve life satisfaction, and elucidation of contributing factors to homebound status will help develop interventions to ameliorate post-TBI homeboundness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).