Traumatic Brain Injuries: An Incomplete Picture

There’s a certain statistic that keeps grabbing our attention as we consider the specific diagnoses that future brain donors report when they pre-register with The Brain Donor Project. We measure what people tell us they have, largely because it’s one factor that is indicative of the burden of disease –  the number of people impacted by certain disorders. It seems more apparent this time of year, with falling leaves and football. And it has to do with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) – but not in the way you might expect.

Now that we know so much more about the brain damage caused by repeated blows to the head, a hard hit on the field lands a little differently with us. We’re all very aware of the particular symptoms and concussion protocols that are part of the game these days, and for good reason. Football players get injured. Regularly. And too many of them suffer devastating long-term effects from hits to the head. Everyone knows that.

It’s surprising to us then, that most of the people who report TBI when they make plans to donate their brain are women. We started paying attention to gender specificity in TBI a few years back, when the science began consistently showing that women have worse outcomes than men. It seems important to look into that phenomenon, especially since the big football studies clearly don’t include women. Why don’t we have good data yet on what happens to women and girls, especially since there’s a much higher risk to them of getting a TBI from intimate partner violence?

Our numbers are shocking. We started gender-specific tracking of TBI in 2018, so there’s nearly seven complete years of data. Of those who’ve reported having TBI/concussions to The Brain Donor Project, 338 are men. But 529 of them are women, which is 61% of the total. Granted, that is not a conclusive scientific finding about which sex suffers more instances of TBI. It is however, a valid argument that the burden of this disorder is clearly being felt by a population that is not sufficiently studied. The athletes may be getting attention for brain injuries, but it’s time we learn more about those who do worse with TBI and very possibly, suffer from it more frequently.