title: Accelerated death rate in population-based cohort of persons with traumatic brain injury.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the influence of preexisting heart, liver, kidney, cancer, stroke, and mental health problems and examine the influence of low socioeconomic status on mortality after discharge from acute care facilities for individuals with traumatic brain injury.
  
  
  METHODS
  Population-based retrospective cohort study of 33695 persons discharged from acute care hospital with traumatic brain injury in South Carolina, 1999-2010.
  
  
  METHODS
  Days elapsing from the dates of injury to death established the survival time (T). Data were censored at the 145th month. Multivariable Cox regression was used to examine the independent effect of the variables on death. Age-adjusted cumulative probability of death for each chronic disease of interest was plotted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  By the 70th month of follow-up, rate of death was accelerated from 10-fold for heart diseases to 2.5-fold for mental health problems. Adjusted hazard ratios for diseases of the heart (2.13), liver-renal (3.25), cancer (2.64), neurological diseases and stroke (2.07), diabetes (1.89), hypertension (1.43), and mental health problems (1.59) were highly significant (each with P < .001). Compared with persons with private insurance, the hazard ratio was significantly elevated with Medicaid (1.67), Medicare (1.54), and uninsured (1.27) (each with P < .001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Specific chronic diseases strongly influenced postdischarge mortality after traumatic brain injury. Low socioeconomic status as measured by the type of insurance elevated the risk of death.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of Public Health Sciences (Dr Selassie), Department of Health Science and Research, College of Health Professions (Drs Cao, Saunders, and Krause), and College of Medicine (Ms Church), Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston.
authors.forename: Anbesaw W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Selassie
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Elizabeth C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Church
authors.forename: Lee L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Saunders
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Krause
mesh_terms: D015998:Abbreviated Injury Scale; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000401:mortality*; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000401:mortality; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000401:mortality; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000401:mortality; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000401:mortality; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000401:mortality; D010351:Patient Discharge; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012923:Social Class; D013022:South Carolina / Q000453:epidemiology; D020521:Stroke / Q000401:mortality; D055815:Young Adult