A thematic analysis of patients' and their informal caregivers' gendered experiences in traumatic brain injury.

The findings emphasize the importance of raising awareness among researchers and practitioners on gender as a transformative process for patients with TBI and informal caregivers after the injury. The diversity of patient-caregiver experiences and critical needs based on gender call for intervention approaches that mitigate gender disparities in giving and receiving care. Implications for RehabilitationHistorically, rehabilitation of persons with traumatic brain injury has targeted physical and cognitive impairments, with little attention to their gendered demands in the lived environment.Gender prevails in the lived experiences of persons with traumatic brain injury, and their informal caregivers, and in giving and receiving quality care.A major challenge for clinicians is identifying harmful gendered roles, norms, and relations and the affective/behavioral problems they produce to alleviate enduring distress and reduce disability.Rehabilitation interventions focusing on flexible and adaptive responses to gendered demands in the lived environment of persons with traumatic brain injury are timely.