How prevalent are Traumatic Brain Injuries? There are 1 million incidences of head injury per year nationally. 50,000 to 110,000 people suffer severe disability.
Statistics
- A traumatic brain occurs every 16 seconds nationwide.
- A death from head injury occurs every 12 minutes.
- Head trauma is the major cause of disability under age 35.
- The annual incidence of moderate and severe TBI is more than that for spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and muscular dystrophy combined.
- 2/3 of those affected are between the ages of 15 and 25 years old.
- Male to female ratio is 2:1.
- 72% are single.
- 50% of battered children surviving TBI suffer permanent neurological, intellectual, and psychosocial deficits.
- A survivor of severe head injury requires between 4.1 million to 9 million dollars in lifetime care.
- Only one survivor in twenty receives appropriate rehabilitation services.
- One severe TBI survivor requires between 5-10 years of intensive rehabilitation with long term follow up.
What Are the Causes?
- 29% Firearms/Assaults
- 29% Motor Vehicle Accidents
- 13% Falls
- 13% Motorcycle Accidents
- 9% Pedestrian Accidents
- 2% Bicycle Accidents
- 5% Unclassified
The only cure for TBI is prevention.
Next in this series, I will be listing the long term challanges of someone with TBI: physical, cognitive and behavioral.
Some individuals suffer from a change in personality after a TBI. Read about Personality Disorders.
Read previous articles on Educational Issues.
Copyright article 2006 Barbara Pytel. All Rights Reserved.
The copyright of the article TBI Statistics in Educational Issues is owned by Barbara Pytel. Permission to republish TBI Statistics must be granted by the author in writing.
