TBI during youth is associated with elevated risks of impaired adult functioning, according to a longitudinal study published in PLOS Medicine. The study, conducted by the University of Oxford, demonstrates that children and adolescents experiencing even milder forms of TBI (including concussion) may have reduced longevity and significant psychosocial problems in adulthood.
Fazel and colleagues compared premature mortality and long-term psychosocial outcomes between the roughly 100,000 people born in Sweden between 1973 and 1985 who sustained at least one TBI before age 25 y, and their unaffected siblings, who were followed up until age 41. The researchers found that TBI consistently predicted later risk of premature mortality (adjusted relative risk 1.40 [95% confidence interval 1.16; 1.68]), psychiatric inpatient admission (1.57 [1.47; 1.67]), psychiatric outpatient visits (1.31 [1.26; 1.37]), disability pension (1.49 [1.38; 1.60]), welfare recipiency (1.19 [1.14; 1.23]), and low educational attainment (1.28 [1.23; 1.33]) in the sibling-comparison analyses, and the effects were stronger for those with greater injury severity, recurrence, and older age at first injury.
Read more at: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-08/p-tbi081716.php