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Traumatic Brain Injury

According to the Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC), 1.7 million people are diagnosed with a brain injury each year.

What is Traumatic Brain Injury—or TBI?

TBI occurs as the result from a blow or jolt to the head that disrupts the normal function of the brain. Categories for TBI are:

  • Mild
  • Moderate
  • Severe
  • Penetrating

The most common form of TBI in the military is mild, and is also known as a concussion.

According to Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, from 2000-2019 (Q1-Q3), more than 413,858 service members have been diagnosed with TBI.

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Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is structural alteration of the brain or physiological disruption of brain function caused by an external force. TBI, particularly mild TBI or concussion, is the most common traumatic injury in the U.S. military. This analysis provides the estimated rates of incident TBIs among service members before their first-ever deployment as well as separately among service members during deployments/ after deployments. It also mentions factors that may explain why the TBI incidence rates among the previously deployed were higher than those of the never-deployed group. Moreover, it describes the demographic and military traits of service members diagnosed as TBI cases (before/after deployment). Categorization of person time during surveillance period included four categories: Group 1 (Never deployed/TBI before first-ever deployment), Group 2 (Currently deployed or within 30 days of return), Group 3 (previously deployed but not currently deployed nor within 30 days of return) and Censored after Diagnosis of TBI. From 2001-2016, 276,858 active component service members received first-time diagnoses of TBI. The crude overall incidence rate of TBI among deployed service members was 1.5 times that of service members assigned to Group 1 and 1.2 times that of service members in Group 3 during the surveillance period. Total TBI cases by group were Group 1 42.8%, Group 2 13.2% and Group 3 44.0%. Incidence rates by group (per 100,000 person-years) were Group 1 1,141.3, Group 2 1,690.5, and Group 3 1,451.2. Learn more at www.Health.mil/MSMR and see fact sheets at www.Health.mil/AFHSB

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