Neurology, link between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and dementia examined

By Cristiano Antonino On May 24, 2022

Major traumatic brain injury (TBI), defined as a diagnosis of traumatic intracranial haemorrhage and a hospital length of stay of three days or more, is associated with an increased risk of incident dementia, although the association is not statistically significant after adjusting for confounding factors, according to a study published online 11 May in Neurology

Finland study correlates TBI (major traumatic brain injury) and dementia

Dr Rahul Raj, Ph.D., from Helsinki University Hospital in Finland, and colleagues examined whether TBI increases the risk of dementia after correction for other relevant risk factors in a nationwide prospective longitudinal cohort study.

They included data from 31,909 participants, aged 25-64 years from 1992 to 2012, of whom 288 and 406 were hospitalised due to major and minor TBI, respectively.

Major traumatic brain injury: during a median follow-up of 15.8 years, 976 cases of incident dementia occurred

The researchers found that hospitalisation due to major, but not minor, TBI increased the risk of dementia after adjustment for age and sex (hazard ratio: 1.51; 95% confidence interval: 1.03 to 2.22). The association was attenuated after further adjustment for education level, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity and hypertension (hazard ratio: 1.30; 95% confidence interval: 0.86 to 1.97).

Alcohol consumption and physical activity were the factors that most attenuated the association between major TBI and dementia

“Considering that there is no cure for dementia or TBI, the results of our study suggest that prevention of other dementia risk factors such as excessive alcohol consumption and physical inactivity could reduce the risk of dementia in individuals with major TBI,” Raj said in a statement.

READ THE STUDY PUBLISHED IN ITS ENTIRETY