A-67
Psychological Resilience and Health-Related Quality of Life following Mild TBI in U.S. Military Service Members

Objective: Researchers often examine factors that may increase the risk of poor outcome following mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), but few studies examine factors that may reduce poor outcome. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of resilience on outcome following MTBI. Method: Participants were 146 U.S. military service members (93 MTBI, 53 Controls; Age: M = 33.9, SD = 9.2; 90.4% male) enrolled from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Participants completed the Traumatic Brain Injury Quality of Life scale (TBI-QOL), Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI), and the PTSD Checklist (PCLC), on average, 33.2 months post-injury (SD = 37.9). Participants were classified into two resilience categories using the Resilience scale of the TBI-QOL: 65 MTBI-Low, 28 MTBI-High, 31 Control-Low, 22 Control-High. Results: Compared to the MTBI-High group, the MTBI-Low group reported a significantly higher number of PTSD and postconcussion symptoms, in addition to fatigue, pain, headaches, depression, anxiety, grief/loss, anger, emotional/behavioral dyscontrol, and subjective cognitive complaints (all p < .05; d = .59 to d = 1.68). When considering all TBI-QOL scales simultaneously, the MTBI-Low group had a significantly higher number of elevated scales compared to the MTBI-High group (e.g., 5 or more elevated scales: 53.8% MTBI-Low, 10.7% MTBI-High). When compared to the Control groups, the MTBI-Low group had the highest number of elevated scales on the TBI-QOL (M = 6.5), followed by the Control-Low (M = 3.4), MTBI-High (M = 2.0), and Control-High (M = 0.8) groups. Conclusion: These results suggest that resilience influences symptom reporting in both MTBI and non-MTBI populations. However, participants who sustain a MTBI and have low resilience are particularly vulnerable to increased symptom reporting.