. The researchers found no increased risk for people with mild TBI, defined as a concussion with a hospital stay of no more than one day.
“Traumatic brain injury has been identified as a possible risk factor for dementia, and as an increasing number of people develop dementia, identification of modifiable risk factors Modification to reduce the number of people developing dementia in the future is imperative.“, said study author Rahul Raj, of the University of Helsinki in Finland.
For the study, the researchers used a Finnish national database consisting of health surveys collected every five years. Focusing on 20 years, they identified 31,909 people who completed one or more surveys that included details on lifestyle factors such as physical activity, smoking, and alcohol use.
Can traumatic brain injury lead to dementia?
The researchers then looked at national health registries. In the study group, they identified 288 people hospitalized with severe TBI and 406 hospitalized with mild TBI who did not develop dementia within a year of their injury. A total of 976 people developed dementia during an average follow-up of 16 years.
Of those with severe TBI, 27, or 9%, developed dementia. Of those with mild TBI, nine, or 2%, had dementia. And of those without TBI, 940, or 3%, had dementia.
After adjusting for age and sex, the researchers found that people hospitalized with severe TBI had a 1.5 times higher risk of dementia than those without TBI.
Considering that there is no cure for dementia or TBI, the results of our study suggest that preventing other dementia risk factors such as excessive alcohol consumption and physical inactivity may reduce the risk of dementia in people with severe TBI. More research is needed on larger groups of people.
Source: Medindia
