Mechanisms of Injury for Traumatic Brain Injury Among U.S. Military Service Members Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective: To understand the mechanisms of injury and demographic risk factors associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients among active and reserve service members in the U.S. Military before and during the COVID-10 pandemic.

Methods: Active and reserve service members diagnosed with an incident TBI from January 2019 through September 2021 were selected. Traumatic brain injury patients diagnosed before March 1, 2020 were categorized as pre-COVID (PC), and patients diagnosed on or after March 1, 2020 were categorized as the intra-COVID (IC) group, aligning closely with the date when the World Health Organization officially proclaimed the pandemic. We determined the frequency of causes of injuries associated with TBI separate by sex, age, occupation, and TBI severity. In addition, we conducted multivariate logistic regression analyses to assess the demographic risk factors associated with TBI severity during the PC and IC eras.

Results: Our cohort included 48,562 TBI patients: 22,819 (47.0%) diagnosed during the PC era and 25,743 (53.0%) diagnosed during the IC era. The major mechanisms of injury within our TBI cohort were being struck by/against objects, falls/slips/trips, and motor vehicle traffic accidents before and during the pandemic. The most common causes of TBI were not impacted by COVID, but motor vehicle accidents did increase during the IC era. The mechanisms of injury associated with TBI differed by TBI severity: being struck by or against an object caused more mild and moderate TBI; motor vehicle accidents caused more severe TBI; and firearms was a major cause of penetrating TBI. In addition, the percentage of severe TBI because of firearms rose sharply during the IC era. Further, women were more likely to be diagnosed with mild TBI compared to men.

Conclusion: Military leaders should consider how different causes of injury are associated with differing TBI severities and how certain demographic groups were vulnerable to specific TBI severities when developing injury prevention programs.