Prevalence and Altered Causes of Traumatic Brain Injury in China: A Nationwide Survey in 2013

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the leading causes of death and disability annually worldwide. However, the epidemiology of TBI had not been established in China. We conducted a nationally representative door-to-door survey in the general population across all age groups in 31 provinces in mainland China in 2013.

All participants were reviewed for a history of physician-diagnosed TBI by trained investigators using a structured questionnaire. TBI survivors were considered as prevalent cases at the prevalent time. The present study also examined the odds of TBI as a function of sex, age, and other demographical variables using logistic regression model.

Of 583,870 participants, 2,673 individuals had suffered from a TBI during their past life, yielding a weighted prevalence of being 442.4 (95% CI 342.2-542.6) per 100,000 person. The TBI prevalence increased with increasing age. The present study observed the multiadjusted ORs of TBI were 1.9 (95% CI 1.8-2.1) for the male, 1.9 (95% CI 1.2-3.1) for the farmers, 1.9 (95% CI 1.2-3.3) for the retiree or homemakers, 3.4 (95% CI 1.5-7.7), and 2.8 (95% CI 1.1-6.6) for those whose education were primary school and high school, respectively. The most common external cause was road traffic accidents among those who were aged 18-34 years old and those whose educational levels were middle school in both genders.

Our results indicate TBI was substantially prevalent among Chinese population and underscore the need to develop national strategies to improve the safe education on road and traffic of TBI in rural residents and some subgroup population.