Particularly in Latin America, strong social support networks and family connections seem closely tied to key mental health outcomes such as depression. Rehabilitation interventions aimed at strengthening perceptions of social support of caregivers of individuals with traumatic brain injury that specifically target availability of advice may improve mental health and contribute to more optimal informal care for individuals with traumatic brain injury.

These results are the first to provide evidence that social and cognitive impairments in individuals with TBI from Latin America are the impairments most associated with caregiver mental health and highlight the need for interventions that target social and cognitive functioning.

BACKGROUND: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death in Mexico, and Mexican TBI caregivers have been shown to experience significant mental health problems and high levels of family needs. OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the associations between family needs and Mexican TBI caregiver mental health. METHODS: Ninety TBI caregivers from Guadalajara, Mexico completed measures assessing their own mental health (depression, anxiety, burden, satisfaction with life, and self-esteem) and family needs (physical health, informational, financial, social support, and household). RESULTS: Family health needs were uniquely associated with all indices of caregiver mental health, and household needs were uniquely associated with caregiver depression, burden, and anxiety. Additionally, social support needs were related to caregiver satisfaction with life, informational needs to burden, and financial needs to self-esteem. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions for TBI caregivers in Mexico-and likely in other global regions with high levels of familism-should include an emphasis on overall family health, the delineation of family roles regarding household responsibilities, the improvement of social support networks and the social presence of family members, and the provision of complete and relevant information regarding TBI. When these needs are more comprehensively met, caregiver mental health will likely improve.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the mental health of family caregivers of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) to an agematched healthy control from Guadalajara, Mexico. SETTING: Hospital Civil Fray Antonio Alcade, a public medical facility in Guadalajara, Mexico. PARTICIPANTS: Ninety family caregivers of individuals with TBI and 89 healthy controls (n = 179) did not differ with respect to age, sex, marital status, education, or household income. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Outcome measures assessed satisfaction with life (Satisfaction with Life Scale), depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), social support (Interpersonal Support Evaluation List), self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale), and anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory). RESULTS: A multivariate analysis of variance found that in comparison to controls, TBI caregivers reported substantially lower mental health scores across all indices, as well as lower social support in two out of three comparisons. The effect sizes of the social support differences were small; two out of five mental health differences reached medium-sized effects; and the other three reached large-sized effects. CONCLUSIONS: Because TBI caregivers' mental health influences the quality of informal care they can provide, mental health interventions for family caregivers are an extremely important part of TBI rehabilitation in Latin America, especially considering familism as a core value in Latino culture.

This study recruited 90 traumatic brain injury (TBI) caregivers from Guadalajara, Mexico to examine influences of five domains of TBI impairment and related caregiver stress on five types of family needs. Canonical correlations suggested that greater social impairment in individuals with TBI and related caregiver stress were associated with higher informational, household and health needs in families. Meanwhile greater physical impairments in individuals with TBI and related caregiver stress were associated with higher household needs. Additionally, greater emotional impairments in individuals with TBI and related caregiver stress were associated with higher informational needs. Caregiver interventions targeting specific TBI impairments and related caregiver stress may meet family needs and thereby improve the quality of informal care for their family members with TBI.