Facts About Brain Injury

Did You Know?

Every 23 seconds, one person in the U.S. sustains a brain injury

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a silent yet serious epidemic currently leaving 5.3 million Americans with disabilities. This represents over- 2% of the US population; 56,000 victims in Utah alone!

Falls are the leading cause of TBI. Rates are highest for children aged 0-4 years and for adults aged 75 years and older.

Motor vehicle-traffic injury is the leading cause of TBI-related death. Rates are highest for adults aged 20-24 years.

There was a 62% increase in fall-related TBI seen in emergency departments among children aged 14 years and younger from 2002 to 2006.

Every 7 minutes, someone dies of a brain injury.

One death every day and one brain injury every four minutes can be prevented by the use of helmets in recreational activities, including skiing and biking.

An estimated 1.7 million people sustain a TBI annually. 52,000 die, 275,000 are hospitalized, and 1.365 million, nearly 80% are treated and released from an emergency department.

75% of persons with TBI who return to work will lose their job within 90 days if they do not have supports.

The estimated lifetime cost for each survivor of a severe brain injury exceeds $4 million.

Direct medical costs and indirect costs of TBI, such as lost productivity, totaled an estimated $60 billion in the United States in 2000.

Each year, approximately 567,000 people go to the hospital emergency departments with bicycle related injuries; about 350,000 of those are children under 15 years of age. Of those children, about 130,000 sustain brain injuries.

1 million children sustain brain injuries every year ranging from mild to severe, with approximately one-third of all pediatric injury cases are related to brain injury. This public health concern ranks as the leading cause of death and disability in children and adolescents in the United States.

Scope of Brain Injury Impact

It is estimated that one million people are treated for TBI and released from hospital emergency rooms every year.

Each year, 80,000 Americans experience the onset of long-term disability following TBI.

More than 52,000 people die every year as a result of TBI.

The risk of TBI is highest among adolescents, young adults and those older than 75.

After one brain injury, the risk for a second injury is three times greater; after the second injury, the risk for a third injury is eight times greater.

https://biau.org/facts-about-brain-injury/