Higher mortality rates among the elderly with mild traumatic brain injury: a nationwide cohort study

Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine

Yung-Cheng Su²  Ching-Chih Lee¹  Chen-Yang Hsu³  Yi-Kung Lee²  Hsin-Yi Lin²  Po-Liang Cheng² 

[1] Cancer Center, Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Chiayi, Taiwan;School of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan;Department of Public Heath, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

关键词: Traumatic brain injury;    Mortality;   

Others  :  810400
DOI  :  10.1186/1757-7241-22-7

 received in 2013-10-13, accepted in 2014-01-25,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

It is known that the risk of death in elderly patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury is increased. However, the relationship between mild traumatic brain injury and death has never been established. We investigated the mortality rates of older patients with mild traumatic brain injury in Taiwan to evaluate if there is a higher risk of death compared with the general population.

Methods

We utilized a sampled National Health Insurance claims database containing one million beneficiaries. We followed all adult beneficiaries older than 65 years from January 1, 2005 till December 31, 2009 to see if they died. We further identified patients with mild traumatic brain injury and compared their risk of death with the general population.

Results

We identified 5997 patients with mild traumatic brain injury and 84,117 patients without mild traumatic brain injury. After controlling for age, gender, urbanization level, socioeconomic status, diabetes, hypertension, history of alcohol intoxication, history of ischemic stroke, history of intracranial hemorrhage, malignancies, dementia and Charlson Comorbidity Index score, the adjusted hazard ratio was 1.25 (95% confidence interval, 1.16—1.34).

Conclusions

Mild traumatic brain injury is an independent significant risk factor for death in the elderly.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Cheng et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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