Brain Injury Study to Focus on Waikato

A new survey aims to find out why Māori and Pacific people have a higher rate of traumatic brain injury at a significantly younger age and with more severe outcomes than the rest of the population.

 The Waikato-wide survey of head injuries aims to collect information on how and why brain injuries occur, and what the best treatment options are. Up to 95% of all TBIs are mild or moderate (concussion) affecting about 24,000 New Zealanders each year, but there's very little information available on the social and healthcare implications of TBI for sufferers and their families.

The study, funded by the Health Research Council, is being conducted by researchers in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and AUT, and aims to record and assess every person who has suffered a brain injury in the Hamilton and Waikato district in the 12 months beginning from March this year. The Waikato region was chosen because its population is most representative of New Zealand as a whole.

"We want to include every single person with a new head injury," says researcher Dr Nicola Starkey of the University of Waikato's Department of Psychology.  "We don't know very much about how people recover from the mild concussion type injuries, and this is the group that probably don't get the support they need," she says. "We want to know how an injury to the brain affects daily behaviour such as shopping, caring for a family, maintaining relationships and being able to work. The information we collect will help us plan better for the future, and make sure we've got the right rehabilitative and support structures in place." 

The study will involve interviewing participants and their families for up to a year after the injury, asking about treatment people received and how easy or difficult it was to get help and information. It will also look at the social and treatment costs.