Release notice – Injury in Review, 2020 Edition: Spotlight on Traumatic Brain Injuries Across the Life Course

New publication!

Injury in Review, 2020 Edition: Spotlight on Traumatic Brain Injuries Across the Life Course was released on August 7, 2020.

This report, the third edition of the Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) Injury in Review series, provides important national surveillance statistics on the causes of traumatic brain injuries (TBI) across the life course, including sports, seniors’ falls, assaults, consumer products, and more.

The following statistics are reported:

• Deaths, from Statistics Canada’s Vital Statistics: Deaths database;
• Hospitalizations, from the Canadian Institute of Health Information’s (CIHI) Hospital Morbidity Database (HMDB) and Discharge Abstract Database (DAD);
• Emergency department (ED) visits for select jurisdictions, from CIHI’s National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS);
• Sentinel surveillance of emergency department visits, from PHAC’s Canadian Hospitals Injury Reporting and Prevention Program (CHIRPP).

Highlights from the publication

Deaths

• Between 2002 and 2016, there were approximately 235 471 injury deaths, 53 200 (22.6%) of which were associated with a TBI diagnosis. TBI mortality rates rose sharply among those aged 65 years and older, and were highest for the oldest Canadians.
• Between 2002 and 2016, rates for males decreased slightly, while female rates increased slightly. Some of the leading causes of TBI deaths were transportation collisions, falls among seniors and suicide among males.

Hospitalizations

• Between 2006/07 and 2017/18, there were 399 376 hospitalizations for head injuries, 63% (251 504) of which involved males. Over this period, a slight increase was observed in head injury hospitalization rates in females, while a slight decrease was observed for rates in males. Falls were the leading cause of hospitalization for a head injury.

ED visits

• Between 2002/03 and 2017/18, 5 074 239 ED visits for head injuries were recorded in Ontario and Alberta combined. For both males and females, the number of TBI ED visits has been increasing since 2009/10. Falls and sports and recreation incidents are the leading causes of ED visits for a TBI.

Sentinel surveillance of ED visits

• Sentinel surveillance of TBIs shows similar patterns to those reported from other sources.
• An increasing trend in TBIs was observed in both males and females between 1990 and 2018.

Download or print Injury in Review, 2020 Edition: Spotlight on Traumatic Brain Injuries Across the Life Course.