Critical analysis of ‘Lockdown life - experiences of partners of individuals with an acquired brain injury during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study’

Abstract

In this letter to the editor, additional commentary is provided to the article by Beal et al., titled ‘Lockdown life ‐ Experiences of partners of individuals with an acquired brain injury during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A qualitative study’. Beal et al. summarised the experiences of partners of individuals with an acquired brain injury (ABI) during the COVID‐19 pandemic and found the partners to be resilient and adaptive and even saw reports of positive changes in some partners’ relationships. The study highlights the importance of providing support to not just patients with ABIs, but their partners who assume some caretaking responsibility as well. Although I applaud the authors’ novel study and believe their findings to be significant, one limitation to note is the lack of detail on the severity of the patients’ ABIs. Providing some basic grading of the ten patients’ ABI severity would allow for clearer interpretation of the qualitative results; if most of them were severe, or on the contrary, mild ABIs, this would elucidate the significance the impact the COVID‐19 lockdown had on the patient and their partner.