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Long-Term Impact of Military-Relevant Brain Injury Consortium Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium

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Traumatic brain injury, cardiovascular disease, and risk of dementia among older US Veterans

Kornblith E, Bahorik A, Li Y, Peltz CB, Barnes DE, Yaffe K. Traumatic brain injury, cardiovascular disease, and risk of dementia among older US Veterans. Brain Inj. 2022 Apr 16;36(5):628-632. doi: 10.1080/02699052.2022.2033842. Epub 2022 Jan 31. PMID: 35099335; PMCID: PMC9187591.

Main Question

Does cardiovascular disease (CVD) explain the association between TBI and dementia and whether these diagnoses have additive effects on dementia risk among older Veterans?

Study Findings

We studied a large VHA dataset of Veterans aged 55+ with and without TBI matched on age, sex, and race. We found that TBI is associated with increased prevalence of CVD among older Veterans. TBI and CVD are independently associated with increased risk of dementia. Together, TBI and CVD had an additive effect, increasing dementia risk by about 2.5. However, CVD did not interact with the association between TBI and dementia risk.

Practical Uses

TBI and CVD independently increase the risk of dementia in older Veterans.

Clinicians may consider recommending self-management activities such as preventing additional TBIs and making healthy lifestyle choices to reduce CVD risk.

For more information on aging with TBI and dementia risk

In an effort to provide the latest findings to our consumers as quickly as possible, some of these studies, while fully peer reviewed, have not been presented or published either electronically or in print. Findings are presented for informational purposes only and should not be cited or referenced until they are formally published or presented.

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The U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, 839 Chandler Street, Fort Detrick MD 21702-5014 is the awarding and administering acquisition office. This work was supported by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs endorsed by the Department of Defense, through the Psychological Health/Traumatic Brain Injury Research Program Long-Term Impact of Military-Relevant Brain Injury Consortium (LIMBIC) Award/W81XWH-18-PH/TBIRP-LIMBIC under Awards No. W81XWH1920067 and W81XWH-13-2-0095, and by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Awards No. I01 CX002097, I01 CX002096, I01 HX003155, I01 RX003444, I01 RX003443, I01 RX003442, I01 CX001135, I01 CX001246, I01 RX001774, I01 RX 001135, I01 RX 002076, I01 RX 001880, I01 RX 002172, I01 RX 002173, I01 RX 002171, I01 RX 002174, and I01 RX 002170. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions and recommendations are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Department of Defense. / Created by VCU University Relations

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