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Aging News & Information
Senior Citizens Lead Hospitalizations for Serious
Head Injury
Type 1 brain injuries increase 38% from 2001 to2004
 March 23, 2007 - Senior citizens led hospital
admissions for the most serious category of head injury – Type 1
traumatic brain injury, which increased for all ages nearly 38 percent
between 2001 and 2004 after a decade of decline, according to the latest
News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Traumatic brain injury occurs when the head
suddenly and violently hits an object or when something pierces the
skull and enters the brain. Although some cases may result in a brief
change in mental state or consciousness, others produce extended periods
of unconsciousness, coma, or even death.
• People age 65 and older accounted for nearly 36
percent of hospitalizations for Type 1 injuries, followed by people age
18 to 44 (about 31 percent). People ages 45 to 64 comprised 19 percent
of the cases and adolescents and children accounted for 15 percent.
• In 2004, there were nearly 204,000
hospitalizations for traumatic brain injury at a cost of $3.2 billion,
and seven of 10 of these involved patients with a Type 1 injury.
Inpatient hospital care for these patients cost $2.7 billion.
• Forty percent of patients with Type 1 injuries
were caused by falls, such as down stairs, off ladders, or on ice. Other
common reasons for Type 1 injury hospitalizations included motor vehicle
accidents (26 percent), being hit while playing sports or having a
falling object hit the head (8 percent), bicycle or other transportation
accidents (4 percent), and shootings (2 percent).
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Study
Shows Poor Sleep Puts Seniors at Risk for Falls |
|
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Sleep
disturbances common in older people can lead to an increased
risk of falling during waking hours, according to research
published last month in The Journal of Gerontology: Medical
Sciences.
A team of
Australian researchers found a link between falls and a poor
quality of nighttime sleep using a sample group of 300
individuals over the age of 65. Fewer falls were reported by
those participants without any sleep disturbances.
Other
articles in the special section outline the latest methods in
evaluating and addressing sleep patterns among nursing home
residents. These can be less invasive tools than traditional
polysomnography, allowing for observations in a more natural
setting. |
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• About 13 percent of Type 1 patients died while
hospitalized and nearly 28 percent were transferred to a nursing home or
other type of rehabilitation facility. By comparison, less than 1
percent of other head injury patients died while hospitalized and about
8 percent were discharged to a nursing home or other type of
rehabilitation facility.
This News and Numbers is based on data in Hospital
Admissions for Traumatic Brain Injuries, 2004. The report uses
statistics from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a database of hospital
inpatient stays that is nationally representative of all short-term,
non-federal hospitals. The data are drawn from hospitals that comprise
90 percent of all discharges in the United States and include all
patients, regardless of insurance type as well as the uninsured.
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