Digital Gaming Used to Improve the Cognitive Functioning and Well-being of People With Traumatic Brain Injury: a Feasibility Study

This is a feasibility study using a pragmatic, randomized controlled trial with three arms.

The study will be conducted within the Turku University Hospital, Division of Clinical Neurosciences (Operational Division of Clinical Neurosciences, Department of Rehabilitation and Brain Trauma in collaboration with former neurology outpatient clinic and rehabilitation units of the university hospital). The Division is specialized in demanding neurological and psychiatric inpatient rehabilitation, inter-professional neurological education, rehabilitative examinations, and the inpatient and outpatient care of traumatic brain injuries. In each year, about 500 patients are admitted in the Division services units.

The recruitment will be focused on patients who have been discharged from the Turku University Hospital, Division of Clinical Neurosciences at least one year before the starting day of the recruitment process. Based on the previous literature, using games in longer interventions will be facilitated if training is provided in the persons' home, due to easier access and reduced impact on school or work activities (Burbea et al. 2011).

The randomisation and patient allocation will be fully centralized; we will use a central randomization service by the University of Turku. The randomization will be targeted on patients who have been hospitalized in Turku University Hospital and who are registered in the Hospital electronic medical records. The study will be individually randomized. Allocation will be computer generated. The participants will be randomly assigned in numbers via computerized assignment developed by the independent Trial Statistician and implemented by the Research Assistant who are trained for patient randomization and data collection.

Participants and the investigators enrolling the patient recruitment and randomization will not foresee assignment. Allocation will be masked to participants in two intervention groups; participants will be aware about the gaming intervention, but not which one is the experimental and which is the comparator. Investigators will not be masked to group allocation, while data analysts (outcome assessor) will be kept blinded to the allocation. As far as we are aware, there will be no contact between participants in different groups; participants are living in wide geographic area in the catchment area of Southwest Hospital District.