https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2094-4765Epidemiology and long-term outcomes of traumatic brain injury (TBI)
Dr. Colantonio’s work has documented the chronicity of TBI and its long-term health outcomes, such as functional ability and increased prevalence of chronic health conditions. She led one of the largest long-term outcome studies on traumatic brain injury with a follow-up period of up to 24 years, which documented gender differences in long-term outcomes whereby men and women differentially report symptoms and impact on daily functioning. More recently, Dr. Colantonio’s team showed an increased dementia risk among women among over 700,000 persons with TBI and spinal cord injury followed longitudinally using sex-specific models.
Women and TBI / sex & gender analysis
Dr. Colantonio led the first comprehensive multi-site controlled study on the long-term impact of TBI on female reproductive health outcomes, reporting on the extent of menstrual cycle disruption and pregnancy outcomes up to 10 years post-injury. This work expanded to include a focus on sex and gender across Dr. Colantonio’s research program, and to a CIHR Research Chair in Gender, Work and Health. This sex- and gender-sensitive program has been further extended through an innovative study, funded by CIHR, to create, pilot and evaluate educational materials for clinicians and caregivers of persons with TBI, that are sensitive to the needs of persons across the gender spectrum.
Big-data TBI
With strong stakeholder input, Dr. Colantonio led the development of the world’s first population-based acquired brain injury dataset across the continuum of care using her team’s unique population-based health care data from the Canadian publicly funded health care system. She led a study examining TBI care contexts not previously explored at a population-based level, such as TBI in complex continuing care and inpatient mental health facilities, providing critical epidemiological and health service utilization data to stakeholders across geographic areas. Her team has also included more data mining approaches and more explicit consideration to sex differences in comorbidities, such as neck injuries.
TBI among vulnerable populations & women survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV)
A large focus of Dr. Colantonio’s research documents the extent that TBI is over-represented among vulnerable populations (i.e., homeless and criminalized people, women survivors of IPV). Her team led a study investigating inappropriate living arrangements for people with TBI and discovered that a significant percentage of men and women who have been homeless or incarcerated have a TBI history. With an extensive network of community partners, and with funding from the Department of Justice Canada, Dr. Colantonio’s team developed the first TBI-IPV toolkit, using an integrated knowledge translation (iKT) approach. Further, this work has attracted interest by Indigenous communities in Canada, leading to a collaborative research project that was published in a special issue in Brain Impairment on Indigenous health issues in collaboration with the Pauktuutit Inuit Women.
Knowledge translation (KT) initiatives
Dr. Colantonio applies innovative methods to KT, including the use of mobile/desktop applications and arts-based KT, such as research-informed drama and animated videos. They have been proven to result in short-term and long-term impacts on client-centered care and in developing best practices. Her team’s research-informed play “After the Crash: a play about brain injury” was invited to perform at important brain injury conferences and other events across Canada. This research has documented short and long-term impact on knowledge, attitudes and practices up to one year after intervention.