- Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death and disability among children and young adults.
- TBI has a much higher incidence rate than other, better-known conditions. Annually, approximately 1.4 million civilian TBIs occur in the United States. By comparison, in 2003 there were about 185,000 new cases of breast cancer. Additionally, about 40,000 persons become infected with HIV every year.
- Of those who experience a civilian traumatic brain injury (TBI) each year, 50,000 die, 235,000 are hospitalized, and 1.1 million are treated and released from an emergency room department.
- Annually more than 80,000 individuals are left with life long disabilities from TBI.
- 5.3 million people are living with a brain injury in the United States.
- Leading causes of TBI are: falls (28%); motor vehicle-traffic crashes (20%); struck by/against events (19%); and assaults (11%).
- Males are 1.5 times as likely as females to sustain a TBI.
- Age groups with the highest risks for TBI are 0 to 4 year olds and 15 to 19 year olds.
- Approximately 475,000 TBIs occur yearly among children age 0 to 14.
- African Americans have the highest death rate from TBI.
(Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2006)
- Direct medical costs and indirect costs such as lost productivity of TBI are $60 billion per year. [Finkelstein E, Corso P, Miller T and Associates. The Incidence and Economic Burden of Injuries in the United States, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006]
- Lifetime costs to treat someone with a TBI are estimated to be between $600,000 to $1.8 million. [National Institutes of Health. Report of the Consensus Development Conference on the Rehabilitation of Persons with Traumatic Brain Injury, NIH: Bethesda, MD. 1999]
- The Federal government spends less than $3 per brain injured person on TBI research and services per year. [Denkeler, K. The Traumatic Brain Injury Act, Premier Outlook 5(1), 35-45]
|