Late-Life TBI Linked to Incident Dementia, Health Care Needs

MONDAY, Oct. 6, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- For community-dwelling older adults, late-life traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with higher rates of incident dementia and health care needs, according to a study published online Oct. 6 in CMAJ, the journal of the Canadian Medical Association.Yu Qing Huang, M.D., from the University of Toronto, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study using linked health administrative data in Ontario, Canada, to describe the association between late-life TBI, incident dementia, and health care needs among community-dwelling individuals older than 65 years. Participants had a new TBI between April 1, 2004, and March 1, 2020, and were followed for up to 17 years. The cohort included people with and without TBI who were matched on age, sex, and propensity score.The analyses included 132,113 matched pairs. The researchers observed associations for late-life TBI with an increased rate of incident dementia (hazard ratios, 1.69 and 1.56 for no more than five years and greater than five years, respectively); use of publicly funded home care (hazard ratio, 1.30); and long-term care home admission (hazard ratio, 1.45). Older women from low-income neighborhoods more often had dementia compared with their male peers (29.0 versus 24.7 percent). Less home care was received by residents of smaller communities than those in larger communities (60.1 versus 64.6 percent), and they had a higher probability of admission to a long-term care home (26.3 versus 21.7 percent)."Reducing injury burden and addressing disparities in outcomes will require upstream preventive efforts, such as fall prevention, and tailored access to post-TBI rehabilitation and support services," the authors write.Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter

Late-Life TBI Linked to Incident Dementia, Health Care Needs

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