Healthcare professionals' attitudes towards traumatic brain injury (TBI): the influence of profession, experience, aetiology and blame on prejudice towards survivors of brain injury.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To investigate the attitudes of healthcare professionals towards individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their relationship to intended healthcare behaviour. RESEARCH DESIGN: An independent groups design utilized four independent variables; aetiology, group, blame and gender to explore attitudes towards survivors of brain injury. The dependent variables were measured using the Prejudicial Evaluation and Social Interaction Scale (PESIS) and Helping Behaviour Scale (HBS). METHODS AND PROCEDURES: A hypothetical vignette based methodology was used. Four hundred and sixty participants (131 trainee nurses, 94 qualified nurses, 174 trainee doctors, 61 qualified doctors) were randomly allocated to one of six possible conditions. MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Regardless of aetiology, if an individual is to blame for their injury, qualified healthcare professionals have more prejudicial attitudes than those entering the profession. There is a significant negative relationship between prejudice and helping behaviour for qualified healthcare professionals. CONCLUSIONS: Increased prejudicial attitudes of qualified staff are related to a decrease in intended helping behaviour, which has the potential to impact negatively on an individual's recovery post-injury.

The influence of aetiology and blame on prejudice towards survivors of brain injury.

The purpose of the present work was to investigate if a hierarchy of aetiology exists which would influence attitudes towards survivors of brain injury. An independent groups design utilised four independent variables; aetiology (measured at five levels: 'Road Traffic Accident' (RTA), 'Alcohol', 'Drug Use', 'Aneurysm' and 'Recreation'), blame (blame and no-blame), group (psychology students and members of the public) and gender to explore attitudes towards survivors of brain injury. The dependent variables were measured using the Prejudicial Evaluation Scale (PES) and Social Interaction Scale (SIS). Three hundred and twenty-five participants (173 students and 152 members of the public) were randomly allocated to 1 of 10 possible conditions. Among individuals who contributed to receiving their injury greater prejudice was displayed towards those in the 'Drugs' condition followed by 'Recreation', 'RTA', 'Alcohol' and 'Aneurysm'. Findings suggest that a hierarchy of aetiology exists, which results in prejudicial attitudes, and is influenced by issues of blame.

Attitudes towards behavioural versus organic acquisition of brain injury.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To investigate the public's attitudes towards survivors of brain injury in Northern Ireland. RESEARCH DESIGN: Four hypothetical vignettes were constructed to test how the acquisition of a brain injury impacted on people's attitudes. The stories of protagonists that they either acquired their injury through organic (e.g. haemorrhage) means or in some self-initiated (e.g. brawl) behaviour. The gender of the protagonists was varied to examine differences in attitudes to males and females. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Adapted versions of the Prejudicial Evaluation Scale (PES) and Social Interaction Scale (SIS) were administered to 96 university students. MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: The data was analysed using three 2 x 2 between subjects ANOVAs and showed that there was no significant main effect of gender, a highly significant effect of injury on negative attitudes (F(1, 92) = 68.30, p < 0.001], amount of desired social interaction [F(1, 92) = 46.27, p < 0.001] and willingness to help [F(1, 92) = 44.66, p < 0.001]. CONCLUSION: The perception that an individual's behaviour contributed to their injury may lead to stigmatization and its negative consequences.