Worries about the long-term effects of head injuries have been a growing concern for years.
New research adds weight to those fears, suggesting that adults with head injuries are twice as likely to die in the long run compared to those without.
What’s more, moderate to severe injuries can nearly triple that risk.
Head Injuries: A Serious Issue in the U.S.
In the United States alone, over 23 million adults aged 40 or older report having had a head injury that knocked them unconscious at some point in their lives.
These injuries could happen in various ways such as car accidents, slips and falls, or while playing sports.
Beyond the immediate risks, head injuries have also been linked to long-lasting health problems like disability, epilepsy that starts late in life, dementia, and even stroke.
What Does the New Study Say?
The study, led by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, looked at 30 years’ worth of data from over 13,000 adults. These were not people living in hospitals or nursing homes; they were part of the general community.
During the study period, about 18.4% of these people reported having had at least one head injury, with 12.4% of those injuries being moderate to severe.
The team found that nearly 65% of those with a head injury died during the study period, compared to about 55% of those with no head injury.
When they adjusted the numbers to account for things like age, health conditions, and lifestyle, they found that people with head injuries had more than double the death rate of those without.
And for people with moderate to severe injuries, the death rate was almost three times higher.
The time between a person suffering a head injury and then dying was, on average, about 4.7 years.
Causes of Death and the Role of Head Injuries
The research team also looked at what specific causes led to people’s deaths. Generally, the most common causes were cancer, heart-related issues, and brain-related disorders such as dementia and stroke.
Among people with head injuries, deaths caused by brain-related disorders and accidents (like another fall) were more common.
Interestingly, almost two-thirds of the brain-related deaths among people with head injuries were due to degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
These conditions were a bigger chunk of the total deaths for people with head injuries (14.2%) than for those without (6.6%).
“This data points to the fact that head injuries are associated with a greater chance of dying in the long term, especially if you’ve had multiple or severe injuries,” said Holly Elser, the study’s lead author.
“This really underscores the need to be cautious and take preventive measures like wearing helmets and seatbelts.”
While the study sheds light on the grim link between head injuries and higher death rates, it also poses new questions.
For instance, why are people with head injuries more likely to die from degenerative brain diseases?
“We need more research to dig deeper into this relationship,” said Andrea Schneider, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The study has crucial implications for public health and safety, emphasizing the need for preventive measures and further research to understand the long-term effects of head injuries.
If you care about brain health, please read studies about inflammation that may actually slow down cognitive decline in older people, and low vitamin D may speed up cognitive decline.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about common exercises that could protect against cognitive decline, and results showing that this MIND diet may protect your cognitive function, prevent dementia.
The research findings can be found in JAMA Neurology.
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