Prevalence of traumatic brain injury in an offender population: a meta-analysis

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can create challenges to managing offenders and to their successful community reentry upon release. In this study, the researchers reviewed relevant articles in Pubmed, PsycInfo, Medline, and EmBase (1983 to 2009) and communicated with other researchers to identify 20 epidemiologic studies that met preestablished inclusion criteria. Random-effects meta- and subgroup analyses were conducted to calculate the prevalence of TBI and the effects of gender, offender type, and definition and method of identifying TBI. The estimated prevalence of TBI in the overall offender population was 60.25 (95% confidence interval: 48.08 to 72.41). A truer estimate of TBI prevalence in offending populations could lead to more appropriate resource allocation, screening, and management of offenders.