EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 PM ET, June 17, 2026
Are older people with brain diseases more likely to have a TBI?
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4:00 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 2026
Highlights:
- A new
study suggests the links between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and certain
brain diseases may go in both directions in older adults.
- In older veterans with recent TBI, a prior diagnosis of stroke, dementia or Parkinson鈥檚 disease was three times more likely, and epilepsy four times more likely, than in those without TBI.
- The study does not prove that the conditions cause an increased risk of TBI; it only shows an association.
- Researchers
also looked the other direction to see which participants developed any of
the conditions after TBI. Older veterans with TBI were twice as likely to
develop stroke or epilepsy and 24% more likely to develop dementia after
TBI compared to before TBI. The rate of Parkinson鈥檚 did not differ.
- The authors say the results support screening older
adults with these conditions for their risk of falling to prevent TBI.
MINNEAPOLIS 鈥擣or traumatic brain injury (TBI) and
certain brain diseases, it looks like the risk may go in both directions,
according to a study published on June 17, 2026, in, the medical journal of the .
Studies have shown that having a TBI may increase the risk
of developing a stroke, dementia, epilepsy or Parkinson鈥檚 disease. For this new
study, researchers looked at older veterans who recently had a TBI to see if
they were more likely to have any of those conditions than people who did not
recently have a TBI.
They found that older veterans with a recent TBI were three
to four times more likely to have been diagnosed with one of the four
conditions in the previous year than people of similar ages who did not have a
TBI.
The study does not prove that the conditions cause an
increased risk of TBI; it only shows an association.
鈥淭hese findings suggest that the period after being
diagnosed with a neurological condition is an important time period for
preventing TBI,鈥 said study author Carrie Peltz, PhD, of San Francisco Veterans
Affairs Health Care System in California. 鈥淥ur findings raise the possibility
that dementia, stroke, epilepsy and Parkinson鈥檚 disease are themselves risk
factors for TBI in older people. Neurological diseases often impair motor
control, balance, gait, coordination and thinking skills鈥攁ll of which make
people more likely to fall, which is the main cause of TBI in older adults.鈥
For the study, researchers looked at 13,801 veterans with an
average age of 78 who had a recent TBI and compared them to 41,403 veterans the
same age who did not have a TBI. They looked at their health records for a year
before and after the TBI, or at a similar timeframe for those without TBI.
People who had any of the four conditions before that time point were not
included in the study.
For all four conditions, people with a TBI had a higher rate
of developing the condition in the year prior than people without a TBI. For
stroke, the rate was 64 cases per 1,000 person-years for people with a TBI,
compared to 20 cases for those without a TBI. Person-years represent both the
number of people in the study and the amount of time each person spent in the
study. For dementia, the rates were 58 for those with TBI compared to 19. For
epilepsy, the rates were 14 for those with TBI compared to four. And for Parkinson鈥檚
disease, the rates were 10 and 3.
When researchers adjusted for other factors that could
affect the risk of TBI, such as diabetes, smoking and having had a heart
attack, they found that people who had a TBI were four times more likely to
have been recently diagnosed with epilepsy and three times more likely to have
been diagnosed with stroke, dementia or Parkinson鈥檚 disease.
The study also looked the other direction at which
participants developed any of the conditions after TBI compared to before a
TBI., Researchers found that after a TBI, people were twice as likely to
develop stroke or epilepsy than before a TBI. They were 24% more likely develop
dementia. But the rate of Parkinson鈥檚 disease was not different between the two
groups.
Peltz said not finding an increased risk of Parkinson鈥檚 may
be due to the short follow-up time of the study, since previous studies have
found an increased risk.
鈥淥ur results argue for screening older adults for their risk
of falling at the time they are diagnosed and quickly referring them to
physical therapy, occupational therapy or fall prevention programs,鈥 Peltz
said. 鈥淪trength and balance training, making changes at home such as adding
grab bars and removing tripping hazards and reviewing medications have all been
shown among older adults in general to reduce the risk of falls.鈥
A limitation of the study is that the requirement for medical
information one year after the TBI would rule out people with severe TBI
leading to death within a year. In contrast, people with mild TBI who did not
seek medical care were also not included. In addition, since the participants
were all veterans, the results may not apply to other populations.
The study was supported by the U.S. Department of Defense.
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