Summary of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Self-reported Traumatic Brain Injury Survey Efforts.
Jill Daugherty, Alexis Peterson, Lindsey Black and 1 others
PMID 39038104WHAT IT FOUND
Self-reported concussion prevalence is far higher than hospital data, but estimates swing wildly based on survey wording.
Asking about 'concussion' yields much higher rates than 'mild traumatic brain injury', and listing symptoms individually raises reported prevalence compared to single questions.
Key findings
01Asking respondents about 'concussion' resulted in significantly higher self-reported prevalence than asking about 'mild traumatic brain injury', despite the terms being clinically synonymous.
02Surveys using a 'select all that apply' format for symptoms yielded higher TBI prevalence estimates than those using a single comprehensive question.
03Self-reported past-year TBI prevalence in adults ranged from 2% to 12%, and lifetime prevalence ranged from 19% to 29%, substantially exceeding hospitalization-based estimates.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
All data are self-reported and subject to recall bias, particularly for lifetime prevalence. There is no gold standard for self-report survey questions, so definitions and formats varied across the included surveys. Some surveys did not use weighted data or report confidence intervals, limiting comparability. The term 'concussion' may be misunderstood by the public, potentially leading to both over- and under-estimation of true prevalence.
Declared interests
None of the authors have conflicts to declare.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat these prevalence estimates as a single accurate number for TBI incidence. The wide variation in reported rates (e.g., 2% to 12% for past-year adult TBI) is largely driven by how the question was asked, not just by actual differences in injury rates.