Reserves, Injury Severity, and Outcomes in Traumatic Brain Injury: A CENTER-TBI Observational Study.

Cohort studyAnnals of clinical and translational neurology· Aug 2026

Reserves, Injury Severity, and Outcomes in Traumatic Brain Injury: A CENTER-TBI Observational Study.

Natascha Ekdahl, Marika C Möller, Lindsay Wilson … CENTER‐TBI participants and investigators

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Emergency Trauma CareCohort studyPrognosisQ1IF 4.0

Age's link to cognitive outcome is weaker in severe traumatic brain injury.

Reserves, Injury Severity, and Outcomes in Traumatic Brain Injury: A CENTER-TBI Observational Study.

Natascha Ekdahl … CENTER‐TBI participants and investigators

Annals of clinical and translational neurology · Aug 2026 · Q1 in Neurology

Purpose

This study examined (1) whether associations between pre-injury reserve proxies and outcomes differed across injury severity categories, and (2) whether the impact of injury severity varied across functional, symptomatic, and cognitive outcomes.

Methods

This observational cohort study used data from CENTER-TBI.

n = 2790

β = 0.1

Results

β = 0.1

age matters less for cognitive recovery after severe traumatic brain injury

n = 2790

More results

Higher education and no psychiatric history predicted better outcomes across all severities.

Younger age predicted more favorable GOSE and cognitive scores.

RPQ symptoms peaked among adults aged 46-60.

Increasing injury severity was associated with progressively lower odds of GOSE ≥ 6.

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Conclusion · 1 of 2

Pre-injury reserve proxies predicted outcome largely independent of injury severity, with higher reserves linked to better recovery. Injury severity showed a graded relationship with functional outcome.

Conclusion · 2 of 2

Symptom burden and cognitive impairment demonstrated non-linear patterns across severity categories.

Reserves, Injury Severity, and Outcomes in Traumatic Brain Injury: A CENTER-TBI Observational Study.

Reserves, Injury Severity, and Outcomes in Traumatic Brain Injury: A CENTER-TBI Observational Study.

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