Traumatic Brain Injury Reauthorization Act of 2013
The Traumatic Brain Injury Reauthorization Act of 2013 would amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize appropriations for FY2014-FY2018 for: (1) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) projects to reduce the incidence of traumatic brain injury, and (2) traumatic brain injury surveillance systems or registries.
Concussion
Most cases of traumatic brain injury are concussions. A World Health Organization (WHO) study estimated that between 70 and 90% of head injuries that receive treatment are mild. However, due to underreporting and to the widely varying definitions of concussion and MTBI, it is difficult to estimate how common the condition is. Estimates of the incidence of concussion may be artificially low, for example, due to underreporting. At least 25% of MTBI sufferers fail to get assessed by a medical professional. The WHO group reviewed studies on the epidemiology of MTBI and found a hospital treatment rate of 1–3 per 1000 people, but since not all concussions are treated in hospitals, they estimated that the rate per year in the general population is over 6 per 1000 people.