“ The number of people 65 and older with TBI is shockingly high . We need evidence-based guidelines to inform post-discharge care of this very large Medicare population , and more research on post-TBI dementia prevention and repeat injury prevention .”
Traumatic Brain Injury Strikes 1 in 8 Older Americans
“ The number of people 65 and older with TBI is shockingly high . We need evidence-based guidelines to inform post-discharge care of this very large Medicare population , and more research on post-TBI dementia prevention and repeat injury prevention .”
Some 13 % of older adults are diagnosed with traumatic brain injury ( TBI ), according to a study by UC San Francisco and the San Francisco VA Health Care System . These injuries are typically caused by falls from ground level .
Researchers followed about 9,200 Medicare enrollees , whose average age was 75 at the start of the study , and found that contrary to other studies of younger people , being female , white , healthier and wealthier was associated with higher risk of TBI .
The study was published in JAMA Network Open .
The researchers , led by first author Erica Kornblith , Ph . D ., of the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and the San Francisco VA Health Care System , tracked TBI Medicare claims of participants enrolled in the Health and Retirement Study , a long-term study of a representative sample of older Americans .
While TBI can be successfully treated , these injuries increase the likelihood of a number of serious conditions , including dementia , Parkinson ’ s disease and seizures , as well as cardiovascular disease and psychiatric conditions like depression and anxiety .
“ The number of people 65 and older with TBI is shockingly high ,” said senior author Raquel Gardner , MD , formerly of the UCSF Department of Neurology and the San Francisco VA Health Care System . “ We need evidence-based guidelines to inform post-discharge care of this very large Medicare population , and more research on post-TBI dementia prevention and repeat injury prevention .”
The researchers sought to identify the factors that made some patients more vulnerable than others , during a follow-up period of up to 18 years .
Earlier TBI studies have found that males , non-whites and those of lower socio-economic status were more likely to be diagnosed with TBI . But the current study found that females and whites were overrepresented among the 1,148 participants with TBI . While 58 % of the HRS participants were female and 84 % were white , among those with TBI , the figures were 64 % and 89 %. In addition , 31 % of those with TBI were in the highest quartile of wealth , while 22 % were in the lowest .
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