Using data from 1,313 participants in the Transforming Research and Clinical Knowledge in Traumatic Brain Injury (TRACK-TBI) Study, Andrea Schneider, MD, PhD, and colleagues investigated the impact of vascular risk factor (diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, smoking) comorbidities on cognitive recovery in the first year after TBI. They found that individuals with comorbid diabetes demonstrated poorer global cognitive function and executive functioning two weeks after TBI and showed less recovery in processing speed over the first year post-injury.
This has important clinical implications for managing post-injury cognitive recovery expectations and return-to-activity timelines (e.g., return to work) among patients with select vascular risk factors following TBI. Because vascular risk factors such as diabetes are modifiable (e.g., through improved glucose control), future work over longer follow-up and with consideration of post-injury changes in vascular risk factor burden is warranted.