Traumatic Brain Injury Related Hospitalizations: Factors Associated with In-hospital Mortality among Elderly Patients Hospitalized with a TBI

ABSTRACT

Background: This study aims to describe TBI-related hospitalizations for the whole population and identify factors associated with in-hospital mortality among elderly (≥65 years) patients hospitalized with TBI in Texas.

Methods: Using Texas Hospital Discharge Data from 2012 to 2014, TBI-related hospitalizations were identified using International Classification of Diseases – Ninth Revision – Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes. Rates for age and gender were estimated using U.S. Census data. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify factors associated with in-hospital mortality among those aged at least 65 years.

Results: There were 51,419 TBI-related hospitalizations from 2012 to 2014 in Texas. Falls were the leading cause of TBI-related hospitalizations 6235 (36.64%), 6595 (38.40%), and 5412 (37.59%) for 2012, 2013, and 2014, respectively. Males had higher rates of hospitalizations while rates were highest for those above 80 years of age. Compared to Whites, Hispanics had 1.18 higher adjusted odds of in-hospital mortality [OR = 1.18: 95% CI (1.01–1.40)]. Similarly, adjusted odds of in-hospital mortality were higher among males [OR = 1.55: 95% CI (1.36–1.77)].

Conclusion: This study provided evidence of demographic disparities in the burden and outcome of TBI in Texas, findings could serve as a foundation for targeted TBI prevention interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Traumatic brain injury
• hospitalization
• elderly
• mortality
• texas
• disparities

Acknowledgments

The authors hereby acknowledge the Texas Health Care Information Collection Center and the Injury Epidemiology & Surveillance Unit of the Texas DSHS for their cooperation in obtaining the data used in this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no financial interest whatsoever from the data, results, or conclusions of this study.

Data availability

Data supporting the results presented in this research are publicly available for a fee from The Texas DSHS (https://www.dshs.texas.gov/thcic/hospitals/Inpatientpudf.shtm). Interested parties can request and obtain these data following registration and agreeing the data sharing policy of the DSHS.

Supplementary materials

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