One in 8 older adults in the US will be treated for a traumatic brain injury (TBI) as they age — and many will occur during falls, a new study finds.
A total of 12.9% of seniors experienced a severe concussion during an average follow-up period of 18 years, a review on 9,239 Medicare enrollees showed. The average age of people involved was 75. The report was published May 31 in JAMA Network Open.
“The number of people 65 and older with TBI is shockingly high,” Raquel Gardner, MD, a neurologist at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel, said in a statement.
People who have a higher risk for concussion include women, people who are white, as well as those who are healthier and have more money, according to the data. Older adults who had a concussion were less likely to have dementia, lung disease or to struggle with activities of daily living, the report said.
“It’s possible that our findings reflect that adults who are healthier, wealthier and more active are more able or likely to engage in activities that carry risk for TBI,” Erica Kornblith, PhD, the lead researcher and an assistant professor of psychiatry with the University of California, San Francisco, said in the release.
“While most TBIs in older people occur from falls at ground level, if you are in a wheelchair or bed-bound, you don’t have as many opportunities for traumatic injuries,” Kornblith added. “It’s also possible that participants with cognitive impairment are more limited in their activity and have less opportunity to fall.”
The findings might only be indicative of cases in which people were diagnosed with a concussion and received care, the authors noted.
“We know that older adults who experience falls, the largest segment of Americans with TBI, as well as lower-resourced adults — including those subjected to racial and ethnic microaggressions in a medical setting — are less likely to seek care,” Kornblith said in the statement. “It’s possible that our data did not capture the true burden of TBI in this population.”
Physical activity is said to be a way to improve function and brain health as people get older Gardner said. But older adults have to be careful when they exercise, too.
“Taking measures to optimize safety and mitigate falls is critical,” Gardner said. “These measures need to change over the life-course as an individual accumulates physical or cognitive disabilities, or both.”
