Head Injury Associated With Higher Risk of All-Cause Mortality

A new study finds that head injury is linked with a higher risk of all-cause mortality. The findings are especially true for people who have suffered multiple head injuries, or moderate, severe, or penetrating head injury. The findings appeared in JAMA Neurology.

Researchers of this study sought to assess the correlation between head injury and long-term all-cause death risk among 13,037 community-dwelling adults in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. The study exposures were defined as self-reported head injury frequency and severity, obtained using interview questions and via hospital-based International Classification of Diseases diagnostic codes (with head injury severity defined in the subset of head injury cases identified using these codes). Head injury was analyzed as a time-varying exposure, the researchers noted. The primary end point was all-cause mortality, which the investigators analyzed by linking to the National Death Index. The study data were assessed between August 5, 2021, and October 23, 2022.

According to the results, head injuries occurred among approximately 18% of the study population, most of which were classified as mild. The results showed an association between all-cause mortality, and head injury frequency (1 head injury: HR, 1.66 [95% CI, 1.56-1.77]; 2 or more head injuries: HR, 2.11 [95% CI, 1.89-2.37]) and severity (mild: HR, 2.16 [95% CI, 2.01-2.31]; moderate, severe, or penetrating: HR, 2.87 [95% CI, 2.55-3.22]). Overall, the estimates were similar by sex and race.

“In this community-based cohort with more than 3 decades of longitudinal follow-up, head injury was associated with decreased long-term survival time in a dose-dependent manner, underscoring the importance of measures aimed at prevention and clinical interventions to reduce morbidity and mortality due to head injury,” the researchers concluded.