A study by UC San Francisco and the San Francisco VA Health Care System found that 13% of older adults suffer from traumatic brain injuries (TBI), mainly due to falls, with a higher incidence among healthier, wealthier, female, and white seniors. Despite TBIs being treatable, they significantly increase the risk of severe conditions like dementia and cardiovascular diseases, highlighting a need for improved care and prevention strategies in this demographic. Credit: SciTechDaily.
com According to a study conducted by UC San Francisco and the San Francisco VA Health Care System, approximately 13% of older adults have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI), typically resulting from falls at 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 recently published in the journal JAMA Network Open .
The researchers, led by first author Erica Kornblith, PhD, 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 seizu.
